HP and the Return of the Valkyrie
by udderpd
Summary: A Happy Harry story attempting to join the end of book six to my story 'Clueless'. Shipping HP.HG.GW.DG.SB.LB.PP.PP. Minor ships RL.NT. I can assure you that Pansy Parkinson has nothing to do with any of the P. Complete - for now.
1. Chapter 1 Petunia

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book. 

**Authors Note: **This is kind of a prequel to my one shot 'Clueless', I say kind of because the period covered will be over a year I cannot see me getting from here to there without them even kissing. That story, which you do not have to read to understand this one, does sort of hint that Harry's first kiss is after Hermione's nude flying trip.

It is my belief that just because JKR doesn't tell us that Harry gets or is given something it doesn't preclude him from having it, if it was not relevant to the plot the lovely lady simply didn't have space in her book to tell us about it.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 01 It's Your Own Fault.**

_Thursday 19th June 1997_

"I wonder what the Headmistress wants us for?" Hermione asked as she and Harry made their way to what was now Professor McGonagall's new office it was the last evening of the school year, the next morning they were all being sent home, weeks early, after their disastrous sixth year.

"It is just as well that I cannot answer that question. If I knew the answer to that I would be teaching Divination and then you wouldn't love me any more." Harry replied with a smirk.

"Don't push your luck Potter. Anyway what did the Minister of Magic, none less, want whispering with you?"

"Well it didn't really seem like it was 'what can the Ministry do for you,' it was more a case of 'what can I con you into doing to help strengthen and advance my position in the Ministry'. The lot of them make me sick, they should ban everyone who was in Slytherin from joining the Ministry, unless they want to sweep the floors and I am not sure that I would trust them to do that without them fiddling the concession for supplying the brooms."

"Not a big fan of Mr Scrimgeour the new Minister of Magic then? 'Ptolemy'." As she gave the password the gargoyle moved out of their way so they stood on the spiral stairs and were carried up to the Headmistresses office door.

"You could say that." He mumbled on their way up.

"Come in." the new Headmistress called before they had chance to knock.

"Good evening Headmistress, you wanted to see us?" Harry asked.

"Yes I do, please sit down." As they sat Minerva continued, "These are for you Harry, they are a provisional use of magic licence and an Apparation Licence from the MLE offices, Kingsley organised them for you, keep them safe, pass me your wand for a minute."

Very uneasily he passed the Headmistress his wand and she cast two spells on it and it glowed each time and then she passed it back to him.

"I have just removed the underage charm and the Ministry tracking charm from your wand, I checked Miss Grangers shortly after her seventeenth birthday, perhaps I should check the tracking charm again." Hermione's wand proved neutral as Harry thanked her and she continued, "Luckily Snape wasn't our only spy and he didn't know about our others; we have received information that the Death Eaters are going to begin to attack student families and unsurprisingly your names are at the top of the list.

"These rings are reusable voice actuated Portkey's, if you are wearing one and say your first name followed by the others middle name it will take you and whoever is touching you, to Headquarters, keep them on your finger all of the time. Oh; and Harry, don't wait around, if there is a problem get out immediately.

"Also make sure that your owl is free to fly and keep everything that you value together so you can, if possible, grab it and go. Miss Granger, have your parents make what I believe the Muggles call a grab bag for essentials, it might be an idea to keep it in your school trunk and remember Mad Eye's motto, Constant Vigilance. By the way we have had to revise the wards on the Headquarters building, they are currently set for Remus Lupin, however because it is your house they will be keyed to you soon after you go there.

"As usual read this." She handed them a piece of paper that had 'Remus Lupin lives at 12 Grimmauld Place' written on it and when they read it they remembered where Headquarters was located.

"Now I have some good news, this morning this new portrait appeared, of course it is of the Headmaster but it won't be awake and functioning for ten to twenty days and we will not know how much he remembers until then. Generally speaking the longer it takes for an incumbent to awaken the more it will recall so let us hope that he doesn't wake up too soon.

"Remember both of you," she said fixing Harry with what could only be called 'a look' which made Hermione smile, "that your main objective at this time is to keep yourselves alive, neither of you are of any use to each other or your friends if you get yourselves killed. You will be Head Boy and Head Girl next year, if you manage to get back here in one piece, so take care of yourselves and each other."

The pair had said goodbye to the Headmistress and were making their way back towards the Gryffindor common room, Hermione started talking quietly and she said, "Whatever you do, if Death Eaters come to your house get away. From what you say if you try to get the Dursleys to come with you it will only cause an argument with your uncle and they are not worth dying for."

In a very serious manner he replied, "It is absolutely pointless me saying something similar to you because you will not listen to a word I say, but to me you are worth more than anyone else, so whatever you do please keep yourself alive for me."

What ever it was that Hermione had been going to say was lost to the world for all time that simple statement offered by Harry in complete sincerity, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world had completely thrown her. He was not the kind of boy who would mess with a girl's emotions, she didn't believe that he would even know how to, so what he had said had to be accepted at face value.

Quite simply she was the most important person in his world, the problem was, that consciously, he was totally oblivious to that fact. Consciousness would be a fine thing…how?

Wow!

Ninety percent of the witches in Hogwarts would like him to say something like that to them but probably Ginny was the only other witch anywhere near fully understanding what went along with the messy hair, green eyes, the smile and the scar.

The fat ladies portrait was opening in front of her and she had no recollection as to how she had arrived here.

For the first time Harry would be able to use magic outside of school so he asked Hermione to help him repack his trunk magically, he would be able to reverse the charms at home.

Whilst they were packing Harry was talking quietly with Hermione and he was asking her about her parents, apparently they were well aware of the trouble in the Wizard world but she knew that they would be very reticent about leaving their home. Her parents were very much of the opinion that the wizard world's problems belonged to wizards and they did not concern a pair of dentists in the middle of Kent.

Harry promised her that he would to talk to them at the station the next day.

OoOoO

_Friday 20th June 1997_

It was a sombre train ride to Kings Cross the following morning, all in all a very subdued trip, in addition to the students there were about twenty Aurors on the train and a lot of the students were viewing the upcoming holiday with trepidation. That morning's Daily Prophet hadn't been very reassuring; it had detailed two Death Eater attacks the previous evening, apparently according to the paper, they had been just for sport, Harry thought that they were more probably for training.

Surprisingly the only two who seemed oblivious to the current situation were Ron and Luna; they simply sat in the corner of the compartment kissing the whole way. Harry had to ask Hermione when the pair had got together and she told him to ask Ginny or Lavender because she didn't have a clue. So the pair went back to the book they were both reading which was called 'Charms and Wards, a Wizards Guide to Defending Property'.

When the train had eventually dragged itself from Scotland to London and ultimately parked itself at Kings Cross station allowing it's despondent cargo to disembark at platform nine and three-quarters. People were saying good-bye to each other and not many plans were being made beyond promises to write or keep in touch by other means.

Mrs Weasley seemed worried and she left hurriedly so Harry spoke with Hermione's parents adding force to her plea, for them to look after themselves and then after the pair hugging and kissing each other's cheeks, several times, it was time for him to face his relatives.

"Dudley is still in school for the next ten days and your uncle Vernon is in work so I had to come and collect you on my own. Where are the rest of your things?" Harry was only carrying Hedwig in her cage so he took his shrunken trunk out of his pocket and showed it to his aunt who hadn't sounded quite as spiteful as usual. She continued, "We will have to get two trains and a bus to get home."

Now she sounded like this was very much beneath her dignity but Harry said, "We will get a taxi."

Petunia looked horrified, "But that will cost about forty five pounds and Vernon will kill me if I spend that on you."

"Never fear I will pay." Harry said, he looked like a reject from an Oxfam shop but he stalked over to the first cab in the taxi rank.

"We need to go to Little Whinging please." He asked the driver.

"That'll cost yuh about forty five quid guv, yu got the dosh?" the driver asked.

Harry took out the money bag that Remus had had Gringotts send him after Sirius's 'Will' had been read earlier in the year and he pulled out half a dozen fifty pound notes to show the driver. He quite happily set off after they had climbed into the back of his cab believing he had picked up an eccentric millionaire because Harry really did look like a street urchin.

The taxi had been travelling for about five minutes when in her poshest icy tone Harry's aunt said to the driver, "This is a very pleasant tour you are taking us on driver, but I would like to reach my home this evening and you quoted my nephew forty five pounds and that is what he will pay you."

"Sorry Missus." The driver replied sullenly.

Harry spent the next hour quietly explaining to his aunt what had been going on in the Wizard World and telling her about the precautions in place for his and if they wanted it their safety. His aunt told him that Vernon would never leave with him but if she were to be nearby, in an emergency she would come with him and she couldn't speak for Dudley until he came home from school.

Harry asked how long Dudley had left in school and was told ten days, so then he said, "I don't think that it will take more than two or three, events will probably decide for him."

The taxi was just pulling away from the house in Privet Drive as Uncle Vernon arrived home and before he could begin to rant Petunia made him come into the house supposedly to prevent him showing them up in front of their neighbours.

As Harry closed the front door behind himself his uncle started to bellow so Harry simply stunned him and said to his aunt in answer to her unspoken query, "I have special permission to use magic whenever I want to so I will just take Hedwig up to my room and come straight back down."

When he returned he thought that his aunt looked slightly amused but she had made a cup of tea, he didn't take much notice of her as he levitated Vernon to a chair in the lounge and sat him in it. He recast his spells to lock his uncle's hips and knees releasing the rest of his body however he immediately had to cast a silencing spell to shut his bellowing uncle up.

"There are a whole lot of things that I need to explain to you, but if you are not going to listen then I will keep you this way." He had said this whilst his uncle was silenced but when he tried removing the charm Vernon started shouting so he reapplied it and carried on.

"You really are your own worst enemy, for years you have been regaling all and sundry including me with a fairy tale of my parents being unemployed drunken layabouts that were killed in a car crash. Didn't you know that my father was a billionaire and now since I inherited all of the family money I am one, so it was me who paid for the taxi I did not spend any of your money.

Amongst other things I own seventy percent of PG International check out what the 'P' stands for before the Grunning in your employers parent company. I found out four months ago and I am still getting used to the idea that I employ you. We could all have had a wonderful time for years but being a self-righteous, bombastic, ignoramus is your stock in trade around me and so we were all made to suffer and I do mean all.

"I am well aware that you are very good at your job in the drill factory and I happen to want to keep my mother's sister alive so I am offering you a new job as Head of Operations in our new offices in Bolivia. You might have seen an announcement for it in the Grunnings company magazine there is only a little bit about the job in there so let me give you this to read."

Harry took his shrunken trunk out of his pocket and placed it in the middle of the floor and having expanded it he removed a folder from it and passed it to Petunia, then he reversed the process with his trunk and put it back in his pocket.

As he did it Harry said, "I am going to remove the silencing spell from you now but if you start bellowing again I will charm you so that you can only whisper." Vernon did not immediately start bellowing so Harry continued, "If you take my job offer which will triple your salary this house will be looked after whilst you are away.

"Your company car will be a Range Rover and you will have a handyman, a driver as well as a cook and a housekeeper. In here are pictures of the six-bedroom villa that the company will provide with all services provided and rent paid by the company who will also supply all of the food, you pay for your own alcohol and private telephone calls.

"Dudley's schooling will be paid for however serious application of his diet will be enforced, if he doesn't loose weight soon he will have a heart attack and die; his fare to and from La Paz will be paid three times a year.

"You are going to be the company figurehead in Bolivia, there are already people in place to run the company, if you do your job there as well as you do in Grunnings then you'll do fine. Nobody is to know that you even know me or your life will likely be forfeit, Voldemort's price on my head is international. Screw up and you will be brought back here without your job in Grunnings do a good job and you can stay there as long as you want to, living a good life.

"I explained what has been going on in my world to aunt Petunia, please treat what I have told her very seriously, it is not a case of if this house will get attacked but more a case of when and I believe that it will be sooner rather than later. It was one of Voldemort's right hand men who recently killed my Headmaster and I am fairly certain that he knows where I live, so even if I am not here they will still come. If this building gets destroyed then I can easily have it rebuilt, however there is no known way, magical or otherwise, to bring someone back to life, if I call you have three seconds to touch me and then I will be gone."

His aunt asked quietly, "Would you like me to make some dinner Harry?"

"Thank you aunt that sounds like a good idea, I need to go up to my room and sort some things out." Harry stood and went upstairs to his room; he had previously removed the immobilisation spells from his uncle's hips and knees.

As he was in his room Harry came to the conclusion that something inside him had changed and he was, as much as possible, going to take control of his life. He had a job to do and he wasn't going to get it done if he allowed people to push him from pillar to post, it was likely that along the way a few people were in for a bit of a surprise, if so, so be it.

OoOoO

_Saturday 21st June 1997_

For obvious reasons the next day was extremely fraught, his uncle had decided to take the job in Bolivia before they had even finished dinner the previous evening. This resulted in Harry spending an hour the previous evening and almost the whole of the day on the telephone. He wanted to get his aunt out of harms way as quickly as feasible and ensure that every thing would go as smoothly as possible. He also spent twenty minutes chatting to Hermione about nothing in particular, which she seemed to like. He had already told his uncle that the Goblins would take care of all the household bills whilst he was away; the word goblins had produced a wonderful expression on his uncle's face, he wished that he had a camera.

He would never have believed that things could be organised so quickly but miraculously his aunt and uncle were to leave the house at six thirty the next morning and also amazingly Harry had not argued with them once. His aunt and uncle had argued, Petunia wanted to take all of Dudley's baby photographs and there were hundreds of the stupid things and a lot of them were nearly the same as each other. Harry solved the problem by shrinking the whole heap of pictures to the size of a pack of playing cards; whoever helped them to unpack would have to resize them, poor thing.

Harry gave his aunt a P.O. Box address for the Harry James Music Appreciation Society; letters sent there would be sent to Gringotts and forwarded to him, he also impressed on her that for securities sake she was not to use it too often.

Petunia and Vernon had written Dudley a long letter half explaining what was going on, it was in an envelope with his passport and some money; Harry would put Dudley's ticket to Bolivia in the envelope as well and it would be hand delivered to his cousin. Harry said that he would try to deliver the letter himself however, despite their pleading he could not promise that he would be allowed to do so, personally he thought that Dudley might well be being watched. He also thought that it would be a fairly rare Death Eater who would have any idea what was going on if they were trying to follow Dudley through Heathrow, it would defy most Muggles.

The previous evening Harry had eaten the best meal he had ever had in Privet Drive and for the first time ever he had been allowed to eat it in the holy of holies, the dining room.

During this last school year in between his bouts with Dumbledore Harry and Hermione had taken the time to learn some really useful charms, so his room had not been so bad. First he had cast impervious and strengthening charms on all of the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the door and the window except for one pane, which was an illusion as a passage for Hedwig and then he had transfigured his bed into a very comfortable double. The only things he had unpacked were all of his clothes everything else remained packed in his closed shrunken trunk and he carried it and his wand everywhere with him, he was of course wearing his Portkey.

He checked through all of the books that had been dumped in his room over the years, he left the trashy novels but took all of the classics and quality fiction. There was a complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica as well as 'how to do', how to repair and 'how it works', type books that must belong to his uncle, they were all miniaturised and packed in his trunk. Then he went to Dudley's room, doing the same to his bookshelves, he found an old Marlboro cigarette packet and shrunk all of the exercise and weight training equipment to fit in the packet that went in his trunk as well.

At one point Vernon asked him why the Death Eaters would bother targeting the pair of them and Harry told him that apart from the simple fact that they were Muggles it was simply to be a nuisance in his life. Actually Harry was amazed that his uncle had actually said Death Eaters without cringing. The more he thought about it the truer this answer seemed to be but also it became more puerile, sort of 'I'm too incompetent to hurt Harry Potter so I will hurt everyone around him,' in a perverse sort of way this gave Harry some encouragement.

Harry had told his uncle that he wasn't allowed out of the house without an escort so at lunchtime his uncle went and collected some Pizzas he had ordered by telephone, it made a pleasant change for Harry. After the afternoon had been spent much the same way as the morning, Petunia cooked them an evening meal that was every bit as good as the previous evenings and she did enjoy Harry magically clearing up and washing the dishes.

The three of them went to bed fairly early that evening, they had to be up very early in the morning.

OoOoO

_Sunday 22nd June 1997_

It was quite light in Surrey at quarter to six on a summer's morning, Harry discovered this as he dragged himself out of bed to see his relations off on their supposed holiday. Hedwig was extremely agitated and he guessed that it was because he had forgotten to let her out of her cage the previous evening and she had had no exercise. He let her out and she headed off in the direction of Hermione's house, 'I only spoke to her yesterday,' he thought as he pulled on some clothes, he would have a shower later.

Having been prearranged, Harry was being shouted at as he was putting his aunt and uncle's cases into the boot of the car for them to supposedly go off on holiday. As the car pulled around the corner out of Privet Drive, Harry wondered if he would ever see the pair of them again and if so when? The thought of never seeing the obnoxious pair again didn't really bother him, the thought of them being tortured or killed by Voldemort or his thugs did.

This was another first, he was alone eating a proper breakfast in the Dursley's kitchen, of course he had had to cook it but all in all he thoroughly enjoyed it, especially afterwards cleaning up magically.

He had been thinking that he still didn't particularly like his relations, he was perfectly aware that their being relatively nice to him was purely a function of 'what he was doing for them'. With them living in Bolivia the chances of him ever meeting either of them again was pretty remote, Dudley was a slightly different matter Harry would have some people keep an occasional eye on him but eventually he would leave school, what then? Hopefully the Voldemort business would be successfully concluded by then and it wouldn't matter.

When he had finished cleaning up after his breakfast he went around all of the ground floor outer walls and windows of the house casting similar impervious and strengthening charms to the ones he had used in his room.

It was now twenty-five past nine and he went upstairs for a shower.

Before his shower he again he went around all of the outer walls and windows of the upstairs casting the impervious and strengthening charms. He didn't know how much good it would do him but if it bought him ten seconds it could be enough to keep him alive.

Harry smirked as he went into the shower wrapped in a towel carrying his wand, shrunken trunk and wearing his Portkey.

He wasn't smiling seven minutes later when, with first a fizzle then a POP the wards went down.

He simply grabbed a towel and his things then said, "Harry Jane".

OoOoO

**Authors Note**. So here it is, the first part of what could well turn out to be a saga, if you like it and would like some more please let me know.

**Question:** It is obviously open season on Snape and the Ferret but who else's lifedeserves to be madeunbearable?


	2. Chapter 2 Myrtle!

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book. 

**Authors Note: **I asked the question of my Yahoo Group as to which day would be the best for me to post this story; we didn't really reach any real consensus so, being as Freya is the Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty and she is also a Warrior Goddess, I have decided that Friday should be the day.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 02 Myrtle!**

_It is still - Sunday 22nd June 1997_

It was just after ten on Sunday morning and Hermione was being awakened from a wonderful dream of a green-eyed boy and she was polishing his magnificent broomstick, 'there it was again' something was tapping on her window. Frustrated she reluctantly cracked open one eye and saw Hedwig, so she shook herself and sat up, then after a few seconds she went to open the window for the beautiful owl.

"Have you lost your letter girl?" she asked, the owl hooted quietly at her as the telephone rang.

Her parents were at church; they had had 'a discussion' about it the previous evening, so she answered the phone, "Hello?"

"_Hermione, thank goodness."_ Needless to say it was Harry.

"What's the matter, you sound panicky?"

"I'm ok, they came and I am at the place, I was prepared and I only lost my clothes, the Dursleys had gone on holiday but I don't know where Hedwig is."

"Don't panic about Hedwig she is here and sod the Dursleys, so you only have the clothes you were wearing?" She asked with an embarrassed giggle.

"In a manner of speaking yes, I was in the shower and I am only wearing a towel. Oh and please tell Hedwig where I am."

So soon after her dream of Harry's wonderful broomstick and here was Harry talking to her wearing just a towel her face was a good match for Ginny's hair, "So you need some clothes then?" how she managed to say this so casually she would never know.

"_You could say that although Tonks doesn't seem to think so, she keeps trying to **'Accio'** my towel but after her second try I've tied a good strong knot." _

Suddenly she wanted to curse the young Auror into the middle of next week, although she didn't really blame her, "You had better go and try to find yourself some clothes, there has to be something that will fit you in that house somewhere."

"Alright then, you keep everything you want to bring right beside you and tell your parents because you know I couldn't stand it if anything should happen to you."

There it was again and her blush was even worse, "I will, bye Harry."

"_Bye Hermione."_ Click.

Her mother was on the landing with her father just as she was saying, "Harry is at headquarters Hedwig, do you want to go and find him there?"

"So, talking to dumb animals now as well?" her mother said in a slightly mocking tone, it had been a rather heated discussion.

Hermione saw red, "The pair of you can sod off and do just what you want." Her parents looked shocked but before they could issue any kind of reprimand she carried on, "Harry's house was attacked at ten this morning and he is wearing a towel, all, that is 'all' of his clothes are gone, he had to get out quickly. Hedwig is not stupid, she is Harry's post owl, I was just telling her where to find Harry and she understood every word I said because she listened which is more than can be said for the so called intelligentsia." She slammed her bedroom door in her parents' shocked faces.

Half an hour later there was a small knock on Hermione's bedroom door and her parents came in, her mother apologised sincerely and handed her crying daughter a tray with three croissants and a large mug of sugar free hot chocolate.

Quietly, through her sobs Hermione said, "If an evil megalomaniac murders your parents and tries to kill you when you are only one year old and then gets himself reanimated using your blood a dozen or so years later. So he immediately starts to hunt you down again, trying to kill you at every turn, after a few years of this you tend not to make too many jokes about death threats because they are just too personal.

"They did Harry's house at ten this morning, I…no our house will probably be next and they will likely come here in the middle of the night so this evening make sure that you set all of the house alarms and motion sensors in the garden; front and back. If the alarms go off then we leave, there will be no time for any 'I just have to…anything', it would probably be 'I just have to go and get myself killed'.

"Tonight we will sleep in the same room and I suggest pyjamas, Harry arrived…and I am not even sure that he was even wearing a towel, he'd been in the shower." She giggled but Dan and Emma Granger now understood that this was not some computer game they were playing.

Her mother saw that she had to do something for her highly intelligent but distraught daughter so she said, "Eat your breakfast then get dressed, I have some catalogues from Harrods and a few other shops like that, you can have a look to see if there is anything you think will suit him."

She kissed her mum who hugged her back and then Hermione started getting ready for her day.

OoOoO

_Back to_ _10am at 12 Grimmauld Place._

Dong…Dong…Dong…

"Incoming in the Hall!" Remus shouted, "House stop the gong."

Tonks had moved like lightning and shouted, "Harry's here!"

Harry shouted, "The Dursleys have left, don't bother looking for them."

It seemed like a dozen pops came from the kitchen and Tonks said, "There was an order meeting and your ward alarm went off…so…uh…you're looking good Harry."

He turned scarlet as he realised that he was sat on the hall floor with no clothes on, he quickly covered himself with the towel he was holding and then stood up wrapping the towel around himself.

"There's…um…tea made in the kitchen do you want some?" Tonks asked innocently, **_"Accio towel!"_**

"Tonks behave!" Harry's seeker reflexes saved his modesty.

She tried to look innocent, "But I am behaving. **_'Accio towel'_**… Badly."

Again his seeker reflexes saved him and so he tied a very secure knot in the towel.

Tonks looked disappointed, however they had reached the kitchen and she poured him a cup of tea.

He sat by the telephone that he had asked Remus to have installed and said, "I must call Hermione."

He dialled her number, _bur-bur…bur-bur…bur-bur…bur-…_'click', _"Hello?"_

"Hermione, thank goodness."

"_What's the matter, you sound panicky?" _

"I'm ok, they came and I am at the place, I was prepared and I only lost my clothes, the Dursleys had gone on holiday but I don't know where Hedwig is." He was quite worried about his owl.

"_Don't panic about Hedwig she is here and sod the Dursleys, so you only have the clothes you were wearing?" _

He was relieved for Hedwig but why was she giggling? "In a manner of speaking yes, I was in the shower and I am only wearing a towel. Oh and please tell Hedwig where I am."

"_So you need some clothes then?"_ she didn't seem very worried that he had lost all of his clothes.

Maybe she thinks that I needed some new ones anyway, "You could say that although Tonks doesn't seem to think so, she keeps trying to **_'Accio'_** my towel but I've tied a good strong knot."

"You had better go and try to find yourself some clothes, there has to be something that will fit you in that house somewhere."

She did sound quite upset that he had lost his things, "Alright then, you keep everything you want to bring right beside you and tell your parents because you know I couldn't stand it if anything should happen to you."

"_I will, bye Harry." _

"Bye Hermione." Click.

"The kitchen looks better, doesn't it Harry?" Tonks was trying to distract him from what she had been doing earlier.

He let her think that she had succeeded for the moment, "Yes the Hall looked better as well, I'm glad that paint stripper cured that old hag Mrs Black…permanently."

"Remus had never heard of it, but we started on her mouth to shut her up and worked out from there. But by the time we had removed all of her head the frame with the rest of the picture just fell of the wall, as did all of the other paintings and a lot of other things all over the house." Tonks continued, "The House Elves couldn't do it because she kept ordering them to stop and the way she was carrying on it was badly confusing them, of course she didn't care that it would eventually drive the elves mad. Evil old cow."

"Where are the elves now?" Harry asked.

"They're still working around the house somewhere, the last time I looked the cellar had not been touched and this was the only room they had done in the basement. The ground and first floors are basically finished although they will need some furniture as well as some bits and pieces of electrical stuff, that's all been left for you to choose. Remus told you that the Master Study and the Library on the first floor were being left but they have been wired, cleaned and dusted.

"The whole house was re-plumbed when it was wired with electricity. Something called an optic cable has been brought in for the telephone and if you want television, you have an option for up to ten lines for the telephone or the Internet. We had one of the wizard squib companies supply the elves that did all of the internal wiring, so we had no security worries on that front.

"Various colours have been used for the twelve bedrooms and eight bathrooms on the second and third floors, be careful the one to the left at the top of the stairs on the second floor is such brilliant orange that it hurts your eyes, apparently Ron likes the colour. We told you that four of the larger bedrooms now have their own en-suite's the other eight bedrooms share their bathrooms in pairs.

"Your master suite on the second floor is finished in red and gold as you asked, Remus and I are sharing his on the third floor, ours is done in blue with pale yellow. We found another similar set of rooms on the forth floor and Remus has forced the elves to have that one, although it was quite a struggle and I suggest that you go and check sometime, make sure that they have in fact made it habitable.

"The rest of the forth floor has two loos, a large storeroom and a huge open room that could be used for training if you wanted although we would have to put up a lot of wards and things. The last time that I looked in the attic it was like everybody else's attic, a junkyard, mind you if you took a lot of the stuff to an antique fair the dealers would bite your hand off trying to buy it."

"Thanks for the rundown Tonks, 'Dobby'!" he called.

OoOoO

There were stereo pops and he was engulfed in a pair of cuddles from two very happy elves, then straight away Winky scolded him, "Harry Potter wheres is yous clothes, yous is in the kitchen and yous should haves clotheses?"

"Miss Winky yous is not to speaks toos Mr Harry Potter Sir likes that, hees is yous master now." Dobby turned to Harry and added, "But yous shoulds haves clothes Mr Harry Potter Sir. I's is very happy to bees here."

Harry spoke kindly to the elves, "Earlier the Death Eaters attacked the house I was staying in and I had to leave very quickly and I was having a shower so I didn't have time to get my clothes."

If possible Winky's eyes went even larger than usual, "Mr Harry Potter has no clothes…Winky will find yous some." Pop.

"Dobby wills makes yous a bacon sandwich for lunch."

Pop, "Theres is clotheses in yours room now, yous go puts them on." Winky had only been thirty seconds and Harry didn't notice that Tonks looked disappointed.

As Harry was leaving the kitchen dobby said, "I's will brings your sandwich up to yous."

Harry made his way up three levels to the second floor where his bedroom was, he was thinking that the house was looking a world better but it was still on eight levels, it was nearly as bad as Hogwarts, at least it would keep you a bit fit. He had never been in either the cellar or the attic and he had only been to the fourth floor to visit Buckbeak, when Sirius was keeping the friendly Hippogriff there.

Eventually he reached his bedroom, he was seeing it for the first time and it looked really…well grand, he had been told that it was forty foot by twenty…grand seemed to be the only word that would actually fit; it was nearly as big as the Dursleys ground floor.

The canopied bed was over to the right and it looked to be about ten foot square, there were a pair of silk sleeping shorts folded on the pillows. In a sort of 'L' there was a sitting area with a desk off to the right, what looked like a stationary cupboard and three tall bookcases. There was also a fireplace around which were grouped two sofas, four armchairs and a coffee table then to the left were two doors, both of which were slightly ajar. The sofas and armchairs were the large comfortable variety they would easily seat ten, or sixteen if you were friendly and squeezed up a little bit.

He put his trunk on the floor beside the desk and expanded it back to full size; he opened it and put the cigarette packet on the desk along with all of Dudley's books about training with weights and his moneybag. He would look around the rest of the house but it sounded like the big room on the fourth floor would be the right place for the exercise equipment.

Entering the first room he discovered that it was a dressing room, a barren fifteen-foot by ten dressing room; on the dressing table there was a fresh bacon sandwich, so he started to eat it. He found half a dozen pairs of various coloured boxers, so he put on a red pair, thank goodness there were no grey ones, grey underwear would forever remind him of Snape.

There were a couple of robes or Muggle clothes…decisions…he pulled on a pair of pale blue jeans, one of two pairs the other's were black then he slid his wand into a special side pocket and added a black leather belt.

All of the clothes were new, where had they come from? He would have to ask Winky.

He found a pile of 'T' shirts and some tops so he pulled on a loose, white cotton, crew necked jumper, next socks…socks, did all House Elves have a thing about horrendously, mismatched, gaudy socks? It did not matter, they would be hidden under the black dragon-hide boots.

He had finished his sandwich.

Deciding to look at himself in the mirror he thought that he looked ok but there was a clatter on the dressing table as the mirror said, "Hair?" in a sort of familiar female voice.

His body had dried but he realised that his hair was still quite damp, the clattering on the dressing table had been various combs and brushes so he picked the towel up off the floor and towelled his hair almost dry, then he combed it.

Happily he was making his way towards the door when the mirror said, "Let me see the hair." He went and looked in the mirror again and sounding really frustrated the mirror said, "Not another one, what's your name?"

He almost recognised the voice, "My name's Harry, so what's your name and what do you mean by 'Not another one'?" he asked.

"My name is Myrtle and if your name is Harry Potter then it was your mother who made and named me after a ghost at Hogwarts who fancied your father. Oh and he couldn't do anything with his hair either." He went through and flopped into a chair in his lounge area, needless to say he was slightly gob smacked.

Suddenly an alarm started ringing and he dashed out of his room then rushed down stairs, he had to go as far as the kitchen before he found anyone else, "Can't you stop the alarm? What's it for?"

Remus said, "Harry you are the only one who can tell it to stop."

Looking slightly confused he said, "Alarm stop." He sighed in relief and repeated his other question, "What was it for?"

"It's a long story," Remus said, "why don't you sit down?"

Harry sat as did the others and Arthur asked, "Shouldn't he go and let them out first?"

"They are safe there and they were warned." Remus responded, "It's only Fred and George trying to prank Harry, so don't worry. So first the most important question is how are you after your earlier adventure?"

"Actually I am fine, I never saw a Death Eater I just heard the wards come down and left instantly, the Dursleys had left at six-thirty so there was no need to hang around."

"Where did they go?" Molly asked.

"Need to know and you don't all need to know, but I will tell those it concerns." Harry received several strange looks from around the table but he ignored them and asked again, "So Remus what was the alarm for? And where did the mirror in my room come from?"

Grinning he answered, "Well the mirror was about the only thing left from Godric's Hollow, your father was sometimes a bit full of himself, so your mum charmed this mirror to be like an overly possessive Moaning Myrtle, she really fancied him, do you know who she is?" when Harry indicated that he did Remus continued, "It used to drive your dad mad, I hope that you don't mind me putting it there?"

Having assures Remus that he didn't mind the mirror Mooney continued, "The alarm was all Sirius's doing, he was getting bored stuck in here all the time so he decided to animate the house and he went around making it safe for when you came to live here. You must have done something in your room that alerted the house to your presence and all of the safety devices will therefore become active, very few spells will be permitted in most of the house. All of the Order has been informed so if they land in a cell it will be their own fault, oh and you can give people either temporary or semi permanent permission to override them as well, ok."

"Sounds good to me, 'House I hereby give Remus Lupin permission to turn off the alarm bell permanently,' is that correct?"

"Did you feel the surge of magic?" Remus asked.

"Yes I did," he answered smiling, "let's go and find the twins."

OoOoO

The pair made their way down into the cellar Harry saw that there was a large open space with what looked like a solid concrete floor he was reconsidering where to put the exercise weights; Dudley had often sounded like he was coming through the ceiling. He saw that the twins were in two cells separated by two unoccupied cells, "Can I give you permission to do this?" When Remus nodded Harry said, "House I hereby give Remus Lupin permission to open these cells permanently."

Remus smiled, "Right you two let me warn you again, if you find yourself incarcerated here three times, that is another twice then the house will ban your entry. Quite simply that means that you will not be permitted entry to the house and if one of you is doing something and the other is keeping lookout or you both plotted it then you are both guilty. 'Cells one and four release your prisoners'."

The twins came out looking quite worried and one of them, Harry wasn't quite certain which, asked him, "Is he serious?"

With a grin he answered, "No he's Remus it was Sirius who fixed the protection wards and the penalties."

Remus grimaced at Harry's pathetic pun and as they were going back up to the kitchen he decided to add more joy to the twins' day, "It is also possible for Harry to give someone, like say Ginny, permission to prank you without you being able to prank her back."

"Bugger!" said the twins together.

"Fred and George mind your language." It was their mother.

"But have you heard these rules?" one twin asked, horrified.

"I have read all of the rules and the rational behind them and they have been available for you to read for months, if you haven't bothered it is your problem. I must say that I am in complete agreement with them." Molly said with a look of smug satisfaction.

"What was the rational Sirius used?" Harry asked.

"His thought Harry," Remus said, "was that the twins were no longer amateur pranksters and as professionals they were fair game and us poor amateurs needed protecting from them. Also he frowned on them pranking non professionals so he decided to level the score, all in all I think that he did a pretty good job."

"House I hereby give Remus Lupin permission to prank the twins whenever he wants to."

From the expression on their faces it was obvious that the twins knew they were in trouble.

"So what was the state of Privet Drive?" asked Harry.

Immediately Molly's demeanour changed and she said bossily, "I am afraid that is need to know information Harry and you are not a member of the Order so you will have to leave whilst we discuss it."

The Headmistress had a slight smile on her face; she seemed to anticipate what was coming.

"Photographs of Privet Drive will probably be plastered all over the front of tomorrows 'Surrey Gazette' however secret you might want to keep it and I am not interested in the orders little games." Harry was just getting started, "I was simply wondering if there was anything left but don't worry I have other ways of finding out. If you want an order meeting then you had better go to the dining room, you will not lock everybody else out of the kitchen whilst you have your chin wag."

Molly was now steaming, "Who do you think you are? We have always met in…"

"Silence!" This was not magic, it was command, Harry had silenced her with a word, "This is my house and therefore where the Order meet's in it is up to me; in future all order meetings will be held in what is now the dining room. The kitchen will not be locked off by you or anyone else, but you are all welcome in here and if you are talking in here then the discussion is open to everyone in the house.

"As to who do I think I am? I am the one who has spent the last year hunting Voldemort with Professor Dumbledore. I am the one who will spend however long it takes, with those who themselves choose to come and I accept to come with me hunting Voldemort until either I kill him or he kills me.

"How the hell do you bunch of ninnies expect to fight Voldemort when you can't even stand the name? A history lesson given to me by Voldemort himself one of the times I met and survived Voldemort and if I remember correctly I also killed a seventy-foot Basilisk on that occasion."

Harry was deliberately repeating Voldemort's name to upset most of the order.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle had a Muggle father but his mother who was a witch was the last heir of Salazar Slytherin, he was born in an orphanage in London, his mother died in childbirth. He was Head Boy of Hogwarts in 1944/45 I believe, it doesn't really matter. His mother was quite ugly and she trapped his handsome Muggle father using a love potion, when she became pregnant she let the potion laps and Tom Riddle, the father, went back to his Muggle parents in what is known as 'the Riddle House,' in Little Hangleton."

With his wand Harry drew the name, 'Tom Marvolo Riddle,' in the air, he had practiced for this moment, he flicked his wand and the letters rearranged themselves into 'I am Lord Voldemort', there was a gasp around the room.

"What does it feel like to be afraid of a sodding half blood anagram?"

He turned to his elves and asked very pleasantly, "Please what time is dinner Dobby?"

"It will be about three quarters of an hour Mr Harry Potter sir, I will calls you."

Harry thanked the elves and walked out of the kitchen, leaving the door wide open; he went up the stairs and stopped on the ground floor landing just out of sight then he listened.

He was pretty certain that Mad Eye was watching him when he said loudly, "You really screwed that one up Molly and I don't know about you lot but I learned a few things."

"Was he telling the truth?" that sounded like Kingsley's voice.

"I believe so, he was with Dumbledore out of the castle quite a few times last year and he probably knows more about you-k…Vol…Voldemort than anyone other than the evil beast itself." That was McGonagall, she said Voldemort well done.

"So what are we going to do to help him?" that was definitely Tonks, she was forgiven for her earlier unladylike behaviour.

"Help him? Why should we help him to chase after that monster? We should lock him up and keep him safe." Molly would either have to let up or she would have to go, she was just too stifling.

"I know what you mean dear, so we will ask Harry to stay at home and be safe, I am sure he won't mind, so who is going to fight Voldemort?" Arthur, always the voice of reason.

"There is a large room at the top of the house, with the addition of some protection charms it could be used for training him and those who are going to be with him." Remus.

"I'll help!" Professor Flitwick sounded eager.

"And Me." Four voices together sounded like the Headmistress, Tonks, Kingsley and Mad Eye. Harry left as they were still carrying on and he went on up the stairs to his room; his outburst had had the desired effect.

OoOoO

"Winky." He called.

"Yes what is it Mr Harry."

"Did you put all of the things away out of my trunk and buy these very nice clothes?"

"Yes Mr Harry, I's dids it and I's was using the moneys in the houses jar but their wasn'ts very muches left."

Holding his moneybag upside down over the desk he said, "One thousand Galleons." A thousand gold coins dropped onto the desk and he continued, "Can you put these in the house jar please and tell me when you need some more? I will ask you if I need some more clothes, I am glad that you didn't get me any grey boxers, I do not like grey underwear and thank you Winky."

"I's is yous elf so's yous don't needs to thanks me. Buts it is nice." The smiling little elf said as she picked up the money in the fold of her apron and disappeared.

He put his money bag into his pocket then he picked up the cigarette packet and the training manuals; he went back down stairs and walked around the order members in the kitchen then down to the cellar, where he put the cigarette packet on the floor on top of the pile of books.

When he tried to transfigure an old rug into a large gymnastic mat it wouldn't respond so he checked it thoroughly and decided that it was probably a magic carpet; so he rolled it up carefully and put it out of the way in a corner.

Looking around he found the room where Remus went at the full moon, the wine cellar as well as an old sheet and some pieces of wood and a couple of bricks, this was more like what he was looking for.

But before he could do anything with them Dobby came and called him for dinner.

When he came up into the kitchen most of the order had left, McGonagall, Tonks, Flitwick and Remus were the only ones who remained and he joined them at the table.

Whilst they were eating their dinner Remus asked quietly, "Was all of that true?"

"Well," he said with a small smile, "I never took a time out to actually measure the Basilisk so that was only a guess, but all of that crap about Voldemort is true and I know a load more, but it depresses me."

"What can we do to help?" the Headmistress asked. "Oh and by the way there is basically nothing left of the house in Privet Drive."

"Houses don't really matter, I will have it rebuilt when Voldemort is gone. Who's going to lead the Order now?" he asked.

"It looks like that honour has fallen on to our beloved Headmistress." Professor Flitwick replied.

"For your information Dursley has gone to work for one of my concerns in central South America, if anyone need to know exactly where just ask. Molly shouldn't ask questions like that, she was in a room full of people some of whom I have very little knowledge of, I trust her but I cannot tell the room in general that I do not trust some of the people in it, especially when it is only because I don't know them.

"Enough ranting, we are going to need training, probably in all kinds of things, Occlumency is fairly urgent, besides that offensive magic springs to mind, but as to other things it might be best to await the awakening of the Headmaster." He continued, "But at the moment I wouldn't mind some help in the cellar?"

"Who do we know and trust that can teach them Occlumency?" Remus asked.

Professor Flitwick pondered, "Why don't you try Griselda Marchbanks wasn't she the president of the Occlumens Registration Committee for about eighty years, do you think that she would teach them? She is absolutely trustworthy."

Smiling the Headmistress said, "What a very good idea Filius, actually I think that it was nearer ninety years she was their president. I will ask her as soon as I can, I believe that I have a meeting with her in two days and don't worry Harry I will have a firm word with Molly in private."

The five of them had finished their dinner so they trooped down to the cellar and Tonks said, "So you've taken up smoking then?"

With a smile Harry answered, "All will be revealed soon, I was thinking of making part of this into an exercise room but when I tried to transfigure this," he showed them the carpet, "I couldn't change it at all. Is it a magic carpet? I know that they are illegal now but the Blacks could have had one for years."

The tiny Professor cast a charm on the carpet causing it to it glow blue, this seemed to get him excited and he cast a whole series of other charms on it getting more and more animated but suddenly he looked disappointed and told them, "It has a password protected owners lock on it, if we try to remove it, it will loose all of its magic and it is a very good carpet, it has both invisibility and passenger shielding charms."

Harry managed to get the first question in, "What is a passenger shielding charm?"

"It creates a kind of a bubble around the carpet so the passengers don't get blown away or drowned by the weather." The professor seemed delighted.

Remus said, "I have seen the instructions on a scroll somewhere with the password, I will try to find them again tomorrow and it is not illegal to own one although it is illegal to use, buy or sell them in this country."

"So what about this exercise area?" Tonks asked.

"I thought about having it at this end," Harry said picking up the cigarette packet, "but it should be walled off and it would definitely need more light." He put the miniaturised pieces on the floor and expanded them to a tenth of their full size, so that it was easier too see just what equipment they already had.

"How did you do that?" asked Professor Flitwick.

Harry looked blank, "Do what?"

"Partially expand miniaturised objects, we don't even teach that in seventh year."

He grinned, "If you suggest to Hermione that you want to learn how to shrink and expand things, you learn how to shrink and expand things." Then he did a passable imitation of her voice, "This book was in the library Harry it's much better than the sixth or seventh year text books, do you want to learn this as well Ron?" Then in a deeper Ron type voice, "I'd love to Hermione, but I've got to read up on these Quidditch plays for the match against Slytherin."

Back in his own voice he continued, "I was then treated to a whispered diatribe about her being perfectly well aware that we had played Slytherin two weeks previously, being Hermione she was absolutely correct and I wouldn't have her any other way. She's a godsend."

Whilst everyone was laughing at Harry's impersonations Tonks had expanded the pile of books, "I've found a book here called 'Organizing Your Home Exercise Room,' and it has some pictures and diagrams, we've got acres of space."

With the skills on tap the exercise room was soon completed, a major surprise to Harry was when Remus called Dobby and the little elf did the lighting for them.

It was practically midnight and Harry was leading the five of them up the stairs out of the cellar when a chime sounded…

Dong…Dong…Dong…

"Incoming in the Hall!" Remus shouted.

Remus hadn't even finished speaking before Harry had his wand out and was going up the stairs as quickly as he could shouting, "Chime stop".

OoOoO

**Authors Note: **When I see over five hundred and forty hits and only nineteen reviews I think that most of you don't like what I have written, but then I thought that there was not a great deal of story in the first chapter so here is some more. I hope that more of you will like this effort and show your appreciation; you don't even need to sign in so **PLEASE REVIEW.**


	3. Chapter 3 Hermione

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book. 

**Authors Note: **Sybil Trelawney was sitting alone in her room when the urge came upon her to gaze into her crystal ball. She said to no one in particular, _'I see trying times ahead for the Dark Lord his plans will be frustrated.'_ Voldemort appeared in her ball. _'You may look like a snake but that doesn't excuse you making that rude sign with your finger.'_

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 03 Hermione.**

_It is still - Sunday 22nd June 1997 We move to The Grangers house at about 23.15 _

"Isn't it about time we all went to bed?" Emma Granger asked, with an exaggerated yawn.

The "Mmm." Came from a bushy brown haired girl whose head was buried in a Selfridges Catalogue, this much thumbed edition had at least thirty pieces of paper, each with a note on, being used as bookmarks, they were sticking out of the top of it.

"Come on Munchkin let's go, it was you that said that we all had to do things together." This was Dan Granger the bookworm's father.

It caused her to write another quick note and put another bookmark in the page, and then she shrank the book before placing it in her bag whilst saying, "Don't you dare call me that in front of any of my friends I will never hear the end of it and they will tease me something rotten. Well actually it is probably only Harry that might know who the Munchkins are but in all probability he has never been allowed to watch the 'Wizard of Oz'."

At the top of the stairs Hermione said, "I will be as quick as possible." Then she went into her bedroom to change into her pyjamas, she magically folded the clothes she had been wearing, shrank them and put them into her bag. Then she made a quick check around her room to ensure that she had everything she might ever want from her past, she seriously doubted that the room would exist in its present form in the morning.

Then she turned out the light; she went across the landing and tapped on her parents' bedroom door saying quietly, "Are you decent?"

The positive response was equally quiet so she went into the room; methodically, she magically folded and shrank her parents' clothes, her mother was watching with fascination until she put them all into her mum's bag. She climbed into the single bed that was across the foot of her parents' bed; the room was nearly dark and they had turned the main light off at just after ten thirty and only left a night-light burning.

The blind was down and the curtains were drawn; with the streetlights shining on the windows at the front of the house, to all intents and purposes, everyone in the house was asleep in bed.

Three minutes before midnight Crookshanks jumped onto Hermione waking her from the light doze she had fallen into, she became alert. Crookshanks was a half kneazle and they were magical in a way that responded to evil. He had proved this in their third year and because this was something he never normally did she prepared herself to act.

Half sitting up she reached under her parents' duvet and moved their feet together, now she was touching both of them with one hand and holding Crookshanks with the other.

"What's the matter love?" whispered her mother, having been disturbed.

"Crookshanks is fractious."

Sleepily her dad said, "That stupid c…"

There were several pops and all of the motion sensor alarm bells went off.

"Hermione James…"

_Monday 23rd June 1997 _

_00:01 at 12 Grimmauld Place _

Dong…Dong…Dong…

"House stop the Chime".

There was a very irritated, ginger half kneazle, on top of a pile of bedding, covering three Grangers.

Harry saw her and dived saying, "Hermione!"

Strangely enough this upset Crookshanks even more so he took a good hard swipe at Harry's left hand. Here he was hero of the hour, he had just saved these three sleepy heads from certain death and this foolish boy was cuddling his Purrminny instead of him. If Purrminny didn't like him so much he would give him another swipe.

Sheepishly Harry stood up, he picked up Crookshanks and absently started tickling his neck as he helped Hermione up, she immediately took Crookshanks from him and started praising the cat for saving them all.

Purrminny understood the hero he had been, so, heroes get fish and cream for supper, don't they? Prrrrrrrrrrr.

Harry then went to help Hermione's mother who seemed to be tangled in a mixture of bed sheets and a duvet, he soon unscrambled her and helped her to her feet now her father was then able to get up quite easily.

Hermione introduced her mother and father to everyone as Dan and Emma, sounding confused Harry asked, "I thought that Hermione's middle name Jane, was after you?"

Her mother smiled, "It is, but when I went to university there were four Jane's in our group so I started using my middle name and that is what Dan has always called me, now everybody else does as well, although it took absolutely ages to convince my mum."

Harry had led them to the kitchen, he was going to make everyone a hot drink but Dobby and Winky were already there, they had made a large saucepan of hot chocolate, which the two elves started ladling out liberally.

As he was pouring the cream off the milk into a saucer for Crookshanks Harry asked, "Hermione, did you manage to bring all of your things?"

"We even brought some things for you." She said with a big smile.

"Yous should alls have something toos eats and go to beds, thens yous don't needs to gets ups toos early." Dobby said, magically setting plates for everyone and plonking two huge platters of bacon sandwiches along the middle of the table.

It was the first time the adult Grangers had seen House Elves, so first they had to be explained and then introduced to them; Winky asked Hermione for her things and she gave them to the little elf explaining which were hers and which belonged to her parents.

Three quarters of an hour later all of them tiredly made their way upstairs to bed, the Grangers were in one of the larger rooms and Hermione was in the room to the left as they approached Harry's room. He pointed to one of the doors and told her that she didn't want to go into that room, it was Ron's room and the bright orange décor was liable to cause permanent eye damage.

She pulled him into her room with her without closing the door, the room looked to be about fifteen foot square it had one single door and a set of mirrored double doors in the wall over to the left, between them and the doors was a six foot wide canopied bed. There was a dressing table, a chest of six drawers, a desk with a comfortable looking chair, two squishy armchairs and a coffee table. Distributed around the walls were three five foot wide seven foot high bookcases, the third one of which was only about a quarter full, Hermione had brought a few books so of course the other two bookcases were full.

When they looked the double doors concealed a magically expanded wardrobe in which were hung all of her clothes, the other door led to her shared bathroom, which was nearly as nice as the Hogwarts prefects bathroom.

"Is this room alright for you Hermione?" Harry sounded both nervous and worried. "We can find a different one for you in the morning if you would prefer?"

"It's really nice," she said happily. The room was actually about a hundred times better than she had expected based on what she could remember of the house from her previous visits. "What's your room like?"

Harry looked blank and said, "It's a bit bigger than this."

"Boys!" said Hermione, taking his hand and starting to lead him out of her room, "Can I look?"

"Of course you can." He answered, his feet catching up with him and he walked with her the few yards to his room, upon reflection he realised that the description of his room he had given was a bit vague and therefore not the most enlightening.

He opened the door and they went in, she squeezed his hand, which she was still holding, and said, "Boys!" again, "It's a bit bigger. He said." She tutted and rolled her eyes, "It's huge and it's lovely, what is your bathroom like?"

"I don't know I haven't looked in there yet." When she gave him a murderous look he quickly added, "I have been busy all day and when we get up I will tell you all about it. You can look at the bathroom now or in the morning, but I am very tired, I have been up since quarter to six yesterday morning and it must be at least one, so can we please finish this when we have had some sleep?"

She had taken a quick glance at her watch and it was after two, she looked really sorry so she gave him a cuddle which he returned, they kissed each other on the cheek, then they said goodnight and went to their beds.

OoOoO

Harry had no idea of the time as he made his way downstairs trying to find some breakfast, he thought it quite surprising that he didn't meet anyone until he reached the kitchen, only the three Grangers were there.

"Morning Harry." Hermione was cheerful this morning and she indicated that he should sit on the chair between her and her mother. She thought that he looked very tasty again today, he was wearing the same jeans and boots as the previous day, but his top although the same style was emerald green and it did things to his eyes that should be illegal.

"Good morning everyone, what time is it?" Harry mumbled.

He wanted a cup of tea to wake him up, so he went over to the cooker and picked up the kettle, as he did Winky appeared with a pop. "Wats is yous doing Mr Harry?"

"I wanted a cup of tea and something to eat…"

"So that's is my jobs so yous sits down, Mrs Hermione's mums wants to talks toos yous, shows yous some nice stuffs."

"It's quarter to ten." Hermione said as Harry sat between her and Emma.

"When Hermione told us that you had lost all of your clothes," Emma said, "I thought that you might like to look at these, you can also find all kinds of electronics and home-wear things in them."

She had catalogues from various departments of Harrods, Dickens and Jones, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and a few other stores, Harry had started eating his breakfast and could see all of the pieces of paper sticking out of the tops of the books.

"What's with the hedgehog?" he asked pointing at the pieces of paper.

Hermione started blushing.

"Your friend seemed to think that you might like some of these things." Her mother said with a smile, "We could use our credit card if you want to buy something."

"I have some Bank type credit cards." Harry said, "Winky did you see a wallet with some plastic cards in it when you put my things away yesterday?"

Pop…pop, "Is this is whats yous wants?" the happy elf asked.

"That's it, thank you Winky." He had finished his breakfast, he pulled out the cards, they were nearly all black and he seemed to have one for each of the four major stores they had catalogues for. "I was told that these cards have special order telephone numbers on them and what we order will usually come here via an instant Gringotts link."

Looking puzzled Hermione asked, "Harry, why are nearly all of these cards black?"

Dan's attention immediately left the Quibbler, "I thought that it was only millionaires who were given black cards, how did you get yours Harry."

"The goblins gave them to me, they said it was because I have over a billion pounds or some such stupid thing, I can't remember the exact amount it doesn't really matter it's enough, they said something about there being over seventeen thousand Galleons a day in interest.

"All that you have picked out all looks very nice, why don't you just order the lot as well as anything any of you want for yourselves as well, it will make a change for me to have some nice things and I need some exercise clothes to work out in and a watch." Harry was just talking away without really thinking as he was flicking through the books.

"You know that you're supposed to sign the backs' of all of these cards Harry?" Hermione said, like her parents she was still stunned from his previous revelation about the money.

"I don't have a ball pen I only have a quill and I was told not to sign them with a quill." He still wasn't paying very much attention.

Dan took a Parker ballpoint out of his pocket and passed it to him, "Use this one Harry."

As he was signing his cards he asked, "Do we have anything else here other than clothes, as I said I need a watch and we need some ball pens like these as well as some notebooks, so what are we going to do today? More to the point what are you going to do about work next week?"

Emma smiled and answered, "Don't worry about us at the moment, we are supposed to be on two weeks holiday. The catalogues also have watches, Hi-Fi, TV's, furniture, all of those kinds of thing so you can pick something from them, I think that Harrods has all of the best watches. But the first thing we have to do is to measure you, we need to know your size before we can order anything for you to wear and then you need to pick what colours you want."

"Winky knowses Mr Harry's size, I'se will tells yous."

"Thank you, Winky," Harry said, "and can you get me a brown pair of these boots also some more of those sleeping shorts oh and I need some Wizarding clothes as well. As for me picking the colours of clothes either one of you pick or just get everything in black." He smiled at Hermione who gave him a look and mouthed, 'I'll get you later Potter'.

The little elf had a big smile as she said, "I wills be very happy to doos that for yous Mr Harry."

Whilst Emma and Winky were writing down Harry's dimensions, Hermione asked, "How much room do you have for clothes?"

"I have masses of room, would you like to come and have a look? You also want to see my bathroom as well, if I say that it is very nice or it's a bit bigger than yours, I will become toast, as I nearly did last night.

"Or would you prefer to see the exercise room first, we made it in the cellar yesterday evening, it is the closest?"

OoOoO

Harry and Hermione stood and headed for the cellar, she was very impressed with the room but asked why it did not have a door? He told her that Professor McGonagall had told him that if we wanted a door we could easily make it ourselves, apparently it will do us good.

There was a desk against one wall and on the back of the desk was a small bookcase with all of Dudley's old keep fit and exercise instruction books on it, she read through the titles then picked out a book. Unusually she did not immediately start to read it instead she carefully read the index and then glanced at the sections that had caught her eye, "Mmm, I think that it would do me good to do some of these exercises, if you don't mind me joining in with you?"

Being a sixteen-year-old male Harry's mind had gone on vacation because he had seen some of the pictures of the girls in exercise clothes in the catalogues upstairs and the thought of Hermione being dressed that way was a bit much for him to contemplate, so he just squeaked, "If you would like."

At his squeak she had given him an odd look, she was fairly certain that she knew exactly what he was thinking, but if he could have seen what was going on in her mind he would be running a mile.

As they were passing back through the kitchen Hermione looked in one of the catalogues and wrote out a list of exercise clothes for both of them, she was as keen to see him in Lycra shorts as he was to see her in them.

When they reached his room he did not give her time to look at any of the books he led her straight through into his dressing room, "This is wonderful, it's nearly as big as my bedroom was in Ashford, what are all of these clothes?"

"Seriously, I have no idea!" he answered, "They weren't here earlier."

There were about a dozen sets of wizard robes including four sets of Hogwarts robes that looked like silk, the brown dragon-hide boots were there as well as a red pair and they had been joined by four pairs of both shoes and trainers. A couple more pairs of jeans and six pairs of slacks, piles of various coloured 'T' shirts, sweat shirts, pyjamas, regular shirts and he even noticed some normal pairs of socks. He vaguely wondered whether Emma had had much of a problem with Winky over the plain socks.

Winky arrived with a pile of workout clothes that she put on a shelf, so Harry asked, "What money are you using to pay for all of this?" Indicating all of the clothes.

"For the wizards clotheses I uses the Galleons buts for the Muggles's clotheses I uses the cards yous gives Mrs Hermione's mums, and theres is plenty of Galleons left." The elf disappeared with a pop.

"This is a great way to go shopping for clothes." Harry realised that he had put both feet in it as soon as he had finished speaking.

To say that Hermione was less than impressed would be something of an understatement, "Shopping especially for clothes is one of a woman's greatest pleasures, second only to shopping for shoes."

If one had not been aware of the history pertaining to him with the green eyes and an uncanny attraction for a certain Dark Lord, one might have believed that he had a death wish, "But shoes are clothes!"

"Boys!" they simply didn't understand the important things in life, she started to stalk out of the room when she happened to glance in the mirror.

"Who's this hussy?" the mirror screamed.

"Myrtle!" they both said, her in amazement, him in admonishment and he continued, "That wasn't very nice, apologise right away."

"Shant!" said the mirror sulkily, "Is she your girlfriend?" mirror Myrtle snapped.

"She is a girl and she is a friend so in that context yes, she is a girlfriend."

"I agree with her about boys being a waste of time shopping but I'm not going to catch the pair of you…kissing, am I?"

"I don't expect so." Harry said casually as he led Hermione out of the room, "We will hide from you if we want to do anything like that."

The mirror started to complain as grinning he shut the door.

He had been paying more attention to teasing the mirror than the pretty girl who was with him, so he missed the look of hope in her eyes because he said what he had, he definitely hadn't ruled out kissing her.

However she had other fish to fry, "How did Myrtle get here?" she demanded.

"Apparently," he said sadly, "she fancied my dad and my mum charmed this mirror to teach him a lesson in humility, Remus told me about it."

He was looking a bit down so it was a good excuse for her to give him a cuddle, "Your mum must have been really brilliant at charms, the mirror not only sounds like Myrtle but it acts like her as well. 'You can share my U-bend anytime Harry." Hermione mimicked.

As he was tickling her in retaliation Dobby arrived with a pop and said, "It is lunch time, yous should comes to the kitchen pleases."

On their way downstairs holding her hand on her heart she said, "Alack, alas and woe is me, am I destined never to see your bathroom." Extremely dramatically.

"Oh it's alright," he said with a smirk, "it's just a bit bigger than yours." She gave him a playful slap just as they arrived at the kitchen.

The mood in the kitchen was a bit sombre; Remus, Tonks, Minerva, Filius and Kingsley had just arrived, Remus repeated himself, "I have just told your parents that their house outside Ashford has gone, although we did catch five of the Death Eaters."

Hermione's eyes filled with tears and Harry took her in his arms to cuddle her, she did not attempt to break free from his cuddle, but she said, "I suppose that we expected it really, so it is not too much of a shock."

All of them had sat at the table and they had started eating lunch.

"One bit of good news," Kingsley said, "I saved these," on the table he placed two miniature cars one was a silver seven series BMW, the other was a red Mercedes Benz CLK Convertible, "where should I put them?"

Knowing what they were Harry asked, "Do we have anywhere to put them?"

"Eventually we will have the mews at the back," Remus said, "it is under the same charm as the rest of the house, but I have not looked out there for years. When I last looked it was a total mess, I can look out there this afternoon if you want to, but they can be kept like that up in the Grangers room until we get something else ready."

"What are they?" Emma asked intrigued.

Hermione was now smiling widely, "Kingsley has shrunk your cars and they can be expanded back to full size when we have somewhere to put them."

"Not to throw too much of a dampener on the party, but where will they strike next?" It was Tonks being practical.

"The Burrow." Harry said without hesitation. "Those five Death Eaters were they anybody we might know?"

"Not really," Kingsley answered, "The only name that might be familiar to you was Mandamus Nott, Theo is his son and he's in your year but in Slytherin. Why do you say the Burrow Harry?"

Hermione obviously agreed with him, "He did Harry first then we figured it correctly and he did me his Muggle born best friend next; if you were an evil Dark Lord who would be next on your hit list? His best male friend and the friends sister who just happen to be what is termed Muggle lovers or blood traitors dependent on Malfoy's mood."

The Headmistress winced.

"Can you use Veritaserum on the prisoners?" Harry asked, "And do the Weasleys have Portkeys like ours?"

"We took the prisoners to the Ministry, it was a mistake." Tonks was scowling at Kingsley, "It will take about a week with the current Ministry rules to get permission to use it."

"The younger Weasleys do have Portkeys similar to yours, although theirs are not reusable." Minerva said, "And I noticed that they were both wearing them when I passed by there earlier this morning, to have a chat with Molly; Miss Weasley was wearing a bag with as she put it, 'a few special trinkets,' in it. Molly again refused Portkeys for her and Arthur."

Harry was looking thoughtful, "I think that he will hit the Burrow with force, there has been no confirmation so he will be extremely doubtful that he managed to get me in Surrey. He will know that he did not get Hermione or her family in spite of him loosing five people at her house.

"Voldemort will probably be livid and lead the mission himself, if not him it will be Bellatrix unless you can think of anyone better he has on his payroll?"

"I shall go back to the Burrow this afternoon," Remus promised, "and I will make sure that they understand exactly what we think is going to happen and tell them what has happened to you two."

Hermione and Harry both noticed Minerva's blatant nudge of Kingsley and he said, "You should be leading the Order Harry."

Harry looked at the pair of them, "I don't think that I will have time, certainly not if I go back to school, but let's wait until the Headmaster wakes up and talk about it again, but succeed or fail at the Burrow I have absolutely no idea where he will strike after that. Everybody we trust, in all of the houses in the fifth, sixth and seventh years should be given a Portkey to take them somewhere safe, Hogwarts maybe?"

Hermione said quietly, "Maybe the girls from our year should come here if they were to be orphaned, it would be friendlier than Hogwarts?"

What neither Harry nor Hermione realised was that this short statement by Hermione was to mark a turning point in both of their lives.

"Portkeys are tariffed items Harry, we can't afford to go handing them out Willy Nilly, the Order simply doesn't have the resources, the tariff is one Galleon per use and the ring costs another Galleon. You are talking about three hundred students it is a most unfortunate fact that wars cost money." The Headmistress did not sound very happy, it wasn't that she didn't want to do it they simply couldn't afford it.

He took out his money bag and put a thousand Galleons on the table in front of Minerva, "When you need more ask and that goes for anything else you need for the war as well, it won't do me any good dieing with a bank full of money. It makes no sense for you to waste your time walking all of the way from your office to Hogsmeade so you can Apparate somewhere."

The bushy haired young girl had had enough of her Harry, _'since when had she thought of him as "her Harry"?'_ running their war for them, "Potter I think that you have been holding out on me, I truly believe that you have some dastardly secret hidden in the bathroom in your bedroom and I intend to find out just what it is."

Smiling she stood and held out her hand, he stood and took it then the pair left up the stairs.

"He would make a brilliant leader." Professor Flitwick said.

Minerva replied, "He believes that he has bigger fish to fry."

"What's bigger than the Order?" asked Kingsley.

Grimly Tonks said, "Killing Voldemort."

The room became silent.

OoOoO

At last she was in his bathroom, _'just a bit bigger than yours,'_ turned out to be three times the size and _'it's alright'_ was quite a misnomer as well, dark green granite and white marble with gold fittings. The WC and bidet were partitioned off, double sinks, an enormous shower and the whirlpool bath was nearly as big as her bathroom, it was much more than on a par with the prefects bathroom in Hogwarts.

When they went back into his bedroom, again he wouldn't let her look at the books, instead he sat her on one of the sofas and he sat at one end of it and said, "I need to tell you about what I have been doing this last year and about everything that was going on, but it must all be so very, very secret. I am now the only one who knows it all and that thought alone is really very scary.

"I was thinking of having us swear a binding oath or something but I can't think of what is needed, I know that I trust you completely, so I will just tell you everything and hope that you will eventually be able to help me. Will you please come and sit a bit closer to me so that I can talk quietly to you?"

She moved up the sofa so that there was about a foot between them but he pulled her closer with her head resting on his upper chest and shoulder, suddenly she felt at home, "Are you comfortable?" he asked.

Actually she was in heaven but all she managed to say was, "Mmm."

He started his story from when she had been hit in the Ministry during their fifth year, filling in things from his perspective, Sirius dieing, chasing and fighting Bellatrix, his and Dumbledore's duel with Voldemort, what happened in the Headmasters office and the prophecy.

He had to stop at this point because she was crying and he comforted her, her respect for him had gone through the ceiling, how did he stand it, his wasn't a life it was a sentence to torment with no time off until the Dark Lord was dead.

When he started again he was talking about sixth year and then explaining the Horcruxes, Slughorn's involvement, all of the memories in the Pensieve and the day that the Headmaster had died, he even included Scrimgeour's wheedling and self-promotion. If he had left anything out it had been unintentional and not very important.

Some time during his talking she had moved and she was laying on the sofa, she was facing him cuddled in his arms and she felt safe, no wonder he had been withdrawn and it wasn't surprising that he acted strangely at times.

She knew that she had to say something, "It's such an awful lot Harry I am not even going to try to comment until I have had time to digest it all, because it sort of stands the world I thought I had a handle on, on its head. But it also makes a lot of things clearer. Thank you for telling me and I will always be here for you. Always. You will let me ask questions if I don't quite understand something, won't you and I will help you in every way I can?"

When he agreed she carried on, "Now the important thing is that it is dinner time and we had better be moving and if anybody asks you can tell them that I have been looking through your books. Nobody will ever believe that." She giggled, "So what are we going to do this evening?"

On their way down to the kitchen Harry said, "I think that we should look at the ground and first floors to see just what we have, we are pretty certain that the Weasleys will be here within at the most a couple of days and like your parents, they might be staying here for quite a while. There is probably no point in rebuilding anything until after Voldemort has been dealt with and I am not sure that it is a good idea for your parents to set up house at the same location, but that is a problem for another day."

She agreed as they went into the kitchen, the only person there who hadn't been with them at lunch was Mad Eye Moody who told them that he had been asking Hermione's parents about the motion sensors and alarms that had been so effective at their house outside Ashford. She reminded her dad about the mass detectors, which had been developed to pick up intruders in the fog, they would almost certainly work with people who were invisible for some reason.

Towards the end of the meal Harry asked, "How is the old dining room? Do you need anything to make it better for the Order?"

Looking a bit sheepish Minerva said, "Well I don't think that anybody has even looked in there yet, we all believe that the pair of you should have full access to Order information anyway."

"Thank you all for the vote of confidence." He said, "But it would be more efficient for you to use that room because, the way things are going, we might well have some more non members living here and even if you trust them they may well be distracting wanting to eat or simply go through to the exercise room in the cellar. It looks like we have all finished eating, how about we all go up and have a look now?"

Along with the six order members Hermione and Harry went up to the ground floor and they went into the room on the left at the top of the stairs. It was about thirty foot by fifteen, the dark wood panelling had been removed and the walls had been redecorated in a very pale blue, the ceiling gave indirect lighting that was very even throughout the room. The table was superb quality as were the chairs, it was a bit larger than the one in the kitchen with fourteen carvers comfortably spaced around it and there were various sideboards around the walls.

Nobody seemed to want to say anything until Hermione asked, "Is the table large enough? Are there enough chairs? Do you want the sideboards or would you be better off with some cupboards and bookcases? I don't think that a very large map would go amiss on one of the end walls and how about your own telephone? So what do you think?" Hermione had effectively described a war room.

The Order members were shell-shocked. Minerva was the first to recover and she said, "The table is about the correct size and maybe we could do with a couple more chairs, but all of this furniture is far too good for our requirements and the maps cupboards and things sound like a very good idea."

Professor Flitwick added, "Can we have some of those excellent pens and pads that Hermione's mother bought for you and please don't forget the telephone?"

Remus was actually using a pad and ball pen to take notes, he had earlier told Harry that he had talked to the Weasleys again and the Weasley matriarch had conceded that he might have a point but she still wouldn't take a Portkey.

All of the Order members were very tired so although it was only nine thirty, they were going to use some of the bedrooms on the third floor, there would still be six empty bedrooms.

Harry and Hermione turned left out of the dining room and quickly went in a clockwise direction around the other four rooms on this floor and then they went back to the first room.

With a smile he asked, "Do you think that your parents would like to make this into a Granger lounge, from what you said I believe that they have brought quite a few of their things from your home in Ashford?"

She broke into a huge smile and gave him a kiss on the cheek and a cuddle, "That would be a brilliant idea, but I won't tell them until the morning, if I did mum would be so excited dad wouldn't get any sleep with her chattering all night."

The pair went across the hall to the opposite room this one was slightly larger and he said, "I thought that I should offer this room to the Weasleys when they get here?"

"I think that that is a wonderful idea as well." She was a bit miffed that she couldn't use this as another excuse to cuddle him again.

Moving to the next room he called Dobby, "Dobby do you think that the current dining room furniture will fit in here?" The room was slightly smaller than the Order's new operations room and it was now clad in light oak.

Dobby rapidly popped back a forth between the two rooms three times then said, "Yes Mr Harry Potter sir, its will fits. If Winky and mees doos it now we can go and rests."

Having checked with her of the bushy hair Harry agreed to allow the elves to do it now and then rest, so they moved to the last room which was twenty-five foot by forty.

"I am not sure about this room," he said, "my first thought was a party room and then I thought that it would be a waste so how about dividing it in half across the middle, we would have two rooms twenty-five foot by twenty. One of them could be completely soundproofed and turned into a television room; the other could be a Muggle library/reading-room, I know that the elves haven't unpacked my Muggle books. But we would have to put some charms on them to stop Arthur borrowing them for too long."

"I realised the same thing about my Muggle books this morning," she said, "it was why I had so much room in my bookcases and I think that it is a very good idea, especially the television."

As she was saying this, the senior Grangers joined them and Dan said, "Did I hear that we would be getting television?"

"You did indeed," said Harry, "I don't know how long it will take because we want to divide this room into two, then soundproof one half for the television and use the other half as a Muggle library/reading-room. Oh and if you ask the elves they will bring you any Muggle newspapers you might want."

Emma said, "That's good news we can get our newspapers and we have brought a load of books that could reside in here as well, but we would want the medical books back whenever it is safe for us to resume our normal life. Anyway it is just after ten thirty, we're going up to bed, don't you think that you should try to catch-up on the sleep you missed yesterday?"

As they went passed the new dining room they couldn't resist a quick look in to see how the elves were getting on and to their amazement all of the furniture had been moved and the room looked like it had always been this way.

After going upstairs they all said goodnight and went to their beds.

OoOoO

**Authors Notes,** Well you really did it didn't you! You went and doubled the number of reviews for this chapter, I bet you can't do it again. **PLEASE**.

My thanks to old-crow for reading through this for me.


	4. Chapter 4 Ginny

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book. 

**Authors Note: **For everybody's information Upper Slaughter is a real place and it has a companion called, guess what, Lower Slaughter and for the purposes of this story Ginny's birthday is the 12th July 1981.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 04 Ginny.**

**Sybil's Muse:** Sybil was not in the best of moods as she settled in front of her crystal ball, _'I'll tell him, giving me the finger!'_ "You're nothing but a failure Tom Riddle and you will fail again!" she told him when he showed his face.

So he gave her the middle finger with both hands.

_Tuesday 24th June 1997_

_04:00 at the Burrow_

It was a warm, sultry summer's night and Ginny was sleeping with her window slightly open. Ever since her exploits with Tom Riddle in her first year she had liked, if it was possible, to have her window open and she had always been a very light sleeper.

Pop, Pop, Pop……………………………….Pop, Pop, Pop…

She was awake with her wand in her hand, she was in the hall in two seconds and she pointed her wand at her throat **_'Sonorus'_**, "Ron, Luna get out of here now!" she yelled.

The noise of the Death Eaters could be heard outside and she had been shouting so what with that and the charm both Ron and Luna were moving her up stairs him coming down and when they met he said, "Ronald Molly," as they disappeared Ginny cancelled the charm **_'Quietus'_**.

The young redhead didn't pause to knock, she went straight into her parents' bedroom, with all the noise she had made they were both awake and out of bed, she took one of each of their hands.

Pop! Voldemort was here raising his wand **_'Ad…'_**

"Hello Tom, you're not wearing very well are you?" Her parents thought that she was insane but it seemed to distract Voldemort for a second and that was all that she needed.

The Dark Lord pointed his wand at her again and he had only said **_'Avada K…'_** by the time she had said, "Ginevra Bilius…"

_04:01 at 12 Grimmauld Place_

Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…"Alarm stop!" Harry said as he was sprinting down the stairs and by the sounds of things he was being followed by everybody and his brother.

Ron was trembling as he was standing in the hall cuddling Luna who was crying, she was gradually getting hysterical repeating 'Where's Ginny! Please be safe. Where's Ginny!' Please be safe.

There was a scramble then Ron and Luna were buried by Arthur, Molly and Ginny.

The Order, were getting ready to Apparate to the Burrow when Harry commanded, "Wait!" he turned to the recent arrivals and asked, "Was Voldemort there?"

Ron looked clueless.

Molly and Arthur stared vacantly.

Luna was now cuddling Ginny.

Ginny nodded and said, "Yes."

Charlie and the twins had come up from the kitchen.

Harry's power had started glowing, "If you go to the Burrow, Voldemort will kill you. We can rebuild a house but we cannot cure you if you are dead.

"Voldemort will be absolutely furious, he missed me in Surry, he missed Hermione and lost five in Kent and now he has missed the Weasleys in Devon. He most definitely will not be a 'happy bunny' and he will have a load of his Death Eaters with him and you know very well that they know what they will have to look forward to from him when they get home and if you lot show up you may well prove to be their passport from _'Crucio'_.

"You can all go there in the morning if you want to, so lets have a cup of tea."

With a lot of muttering they all went down to the kitchen, Dobby and Winky had made tea and hot chocolate so they all sat down to digest what had happened, the Headmistress had disappeared to the school and returned with the school nurse.

Hermione noticed that her parents were the only occupants of the house who weren't currently in the kitchen.

Poppy took one look at Molly and Arthur then she had Charlie and the twins help her get them up to the room on the second floor next door to the Grangers, where they were given some 'Dreamless Sleep Potion' then put to bed.

Ron appeared to have recovered a little and was sat with Luna buried in his chest, she had stopped whimpering and seemed to be recovering from the shock of her abrupt and very unpleasant awakening. Luckily for them neither of the pair had seen Voldemort, or more to the point, the Dark Lord hadn't seen either of them.

Ginny was sat quietly between Hermione and Harry, she was clinging to both of them and they were cuddling her, all things considered she seemed reasonably composed.

After a few minutes Mad Eye asked, "So what happened Ron?"

"We don't know," it was Luna, she had felt Ron tense at the mention of his name, she knew that he had been terrified, so she answered quietly, "ask Ginny she woke all of us and got us all out."

"So Gin," Hermione asked gently, "do you feel like telling us what happened?"

"Not really." She answered quietly but continued after a pause, "It's a hot sticky night so, as usual, I was sleeping with my window open, but I don't think that I was sleeping properly because of Harry's warning. I heard all these pops, I have no idea how many but there were a lot; they obviously woke me up. I grabbed my wand which was in the bag around my neck and cast _'Sonorus'_ on myself then yelled at these two to get out." She vaguely waved her hand in the direction of Luna and Ron.

"They left immediately so I went into mum and dad's room but as I reached them Tom arrived and started to cast the killing curse so I said 'Hello Tom you're not wearing very well are you?' or something stupid like that and it seemed to throw him for a second, that was enough for me to activate the Portkey and we landed in a heap in the hall."

Charlie the nurse and the twins had been standing in the doorway listening to the youngest Weasley, the room was silent for about two minutes. She was still not sixteen and she had faced down Voldemort saving her parents after saving her brother and her friend. In a just world she would get the 'Order of Merlin' but as things were they couldn't even tell anyone, or she would probably get a fine for performing underage magic.

There was silence for three minutes but the tension in the room was increasing.

Harry was annoyed and it was getting worse.

"You had better keep Molly away from me for the next week," Harry said in a dangerous tone, "when I get my hands on her I am likely to kill her. She nearly got three people killed, stubborn her self to death if she wants to, but stubborning Ginny and Arthur to death I will have a problem forgiving."

Charlie sprung to his mothers defence, "Harry! You can't blame mum because of a Death Eater attack."

"You don't know the half of it." Was mumbled by several people around the table.

"Harry told us it was going to happen!" It was an equally irritated Ginny who had continued and her eyes were on fire with righteous indignation, "Three times different Order members tried to get her to take a Portkey, she wouldn't and she wouldn't even let dad take one either.

"When he starts to prepare to fight I will join Harry, Tom Riddle has to be put down.

"You had better keep mum away from me as well." She half turned to Harry and started crying quietly on his chest, when Hermione tried to move away she pulled her back into the cuddle.

Harry made the girls stand and said, "Come on, this isn't helping and it's time for bed, Ron, Luna come on." Then he turned to the room, "From now on all of the second floor bedrooms will be occupied."

When the five had left it was quiet for a few minutes then the Headmistress said, "When Harry goes Voldemort hunting that is one brave girl and I will bet my life savings she will be with him.

"Kingsley, her sixteenth birthday is on the twelfth of next month, she should have the same permits as Harry, they will soon teach her to Apparate. We will remove the tracking charms from her wand tomorrow, she will need to practice with them when they start training and it was actually four of us who tried to get Molly to take a Portkey.

"Now I suggest we follow Harry's example and try to get some more sleep, we have work to do in the morning."

Charlie was looking disturbed, "Mum will stop her."

"Molly might try to stop her Charlie," Professor Flitwick said very seriously, "but if she doesn't want a case of permanent 'Bat Bogies' I would suggest that she doesn't try too hard. Your sister has the best 'Bat Bogie hex' I have ever seen and if she was really steamed then it could quite easily be permanent for the victim, your mum's pigheadedness forced her to face Vo … Voldemort again and she won't be too thankful for that honour.

"If the pair of them were to have a duel it is your sister I would put money on and if your sister was in a temper then Molly would get seriously hurt. Don't underestimate Ginny, she is sixteen with more experience than most sixty year old Auror's."

Yawning Remus said, "Enough talking, if the twins share then there is still enough room here, are you all staying?"

Having decided that they would all stay and that they would all go to the Burrow at eight thirty in the morning, the nine order members went to get a few more hours sleep.

OoOoO

As Harry had predicted Voldemort was not a 'happy bunny', having been thwarted in the bedroom by that really strange spell, '_Ginevra Bilius_', he never forgot an incantation and had never heard anything like it.

What language was it?

He dare not tell any of his followers, if this was some new powerful form of magic he didn't want them learning about it before he had mastered it, you never knew what else it might be capable of.

If he had asked Snape who after killing Dumbledore had become his new second in command, Severus would have answered him immediately. Snape was perfectly well aware that they were the proper first names of two of the Weasley brats. He would have surmised therefore that it would probably be a code to activate a Portkey or some such device.

However the Dark Lord didn't really trust Snape, everybody he really trusted was dead, what he never ever gave thought to was, that the only reason he really trusted anybody was because they were dead.

Of such machinations of the mind is paranoia composed.

So first he took his anger out on the empty building, reducing it to quite fine rubble, it would be excellent core material when the rebuilding work started on the Burrow.

Next he had AK'ed four of his followers for smirking at him, the four had had their white Death Eater masks on but nobody who wanted to live until breakfast dared ask him how he knew that they were smirking.

When they had arrived back at the damp ruin they currently called home, it was a deserted Manor House outside the village of Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire; the Dark Lords mood hadn't abated. So he spent a pleasant hour practising his 'Cruciatus Curse' on each of his followers in turn, it hadn't been as pleasant an hour for his minions as it had been for the Dark Lord, but at least his evil mood had abated, slightly.

He called Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange to him and told them that they would take twelve of his new followers and attack the Creeveys at nine the next morning. It was summer and the pair knew that it was highly likely that the family would be up and about at nine in the morning. However they had both had a more than reasonable share of his _'Crucio'_ this morning and were not in the mood for another ration for questioning their master's wisdom.

OoOoO

When Harry's group reached the second floor he faced the other way and pointed at a door then said, "That is your room Ron and nobody in their right mind will go in there with you."

As Ron opened the door Hermione faced away with Harry and almost immediately the other two girls were facing away as well, however Ron said happily, "It's brilliant mate, do you like the colour Luna?"

Her response proved then that she was in her right mind, "No! It makes me feel quite ill Ronald, where is my room please Harry?" Luna had been through too much in the last couple of hours to be putting on a brave face to placate Ron's childishness.

"This way Luna." Hermione said and they went to the other room on that side of the corridor followed by a slightly disgruntled Ron.

The room was pale lemon and they soon showed her around it giving both of them instructions not to leave the bathroom door open. Hermione went to her own room and brought Luna a set of robes for the morning, the three said goodnight to the two and they went to show Ginny her room.

It was the palest shade of turquoise imaginable; Harry went into the bathroom and said, "House it does not matter if either or both of these doors are left open." First looking towards Hermione he said to Ginny, "Are you going to be alright on your own, or would you like someone with you."

She thought for about half a minute then said, "Really I stand no chance of getting any sleep on my own so would either or both of you like to stay with me?" she was nearly in tears again.

Hermione looked at him and said, "Harry has the biggest bed, so his room, both of us." She wasn't letting Ginny have him to herself, no matter what.

_08:30 - 12 Grimmauld Place_

When he had gone to sleep Ginny had been in the middle with Hermione and him either side of her, cuddling her. Now he was waking up and he appeared to be in the middle of two soft warm bodies. Both of them were cuddling him and he was finding it very pleasant, as a consequence he was cursing the fact that he had to go to the loo, so slowly he opened his eyes.

He was being gazed at by two pairs of soft brown eyes, one attached to a head with straight bright red hair, the other head had brown curly hair, he said, "Good morning angels."

"Good morning handsome." Was the stereo reply and they each kissed him on the cheek.

"How are you this morning Gin?" he asked.

"A lot, lot better than I was earlier this morning, thank you both."

"You are very welcome to whatever help I have been but I must go to the loo." He said.

"Are we going to be exercising this morning?" Hermione asked, "I can lend Ginny some things until we get her some of her own."

"Ok, I'll go to the loo and then I will put on my exercise gear and meet you outside."

The two girls kissed his cheek again and left for their own rooms, as he went to get himself ready, he was thinking that it was a much nicer way to wake up than he had ever experienced in Privet Drive, or anywhere else for that matter.

Three minutes later he met the girls on the landing and they made their way downstairs to the kitchen, the only three occupants were the Grangers and Luna, after they had introduced the youngest Weasley to Hermione's mother and father Ginny asked in a surprised tone, "Where's Ron, has he finished breakfast already?"

Luna looked away from her inverted copy of the Quibbler and said, "I have taken the liberty of explaining last nights exploits to your parents Hermione and I believe that Ronald is deciding if, after this morning's escapade, he is going to resign from the world, he has realised that contesting the power of Voldemort is very dangerous.

"In another quarter of an hour I shall send one of the lovely elves to inform him that if he doesn't get down here in five minutes he will not eat at all today, if he does not respond to that, then I believe that we have a serious problem.

"Enough of Ronald, why are you three wearing such lovely clothes?"

"We are going downstairs to exercise, would you like to join us?" Hermione had suddenly found a new respect for the blond Ravenclaw; at least she certainly understood Ron's priorities and was prepared to use them against him to her advantage if necessary.

The blond put down the Quibbler and said, "If you don't mind too much I should like to come and watch you, I will consider whether I should subject my body to voluntary exertion."

Luna divided her attention between the book Hermione had been reading previously and watching the three exercising, the latter was far more informative and entertaining.

The girls were deliberately trying to drive Harry mad.

Their main aim appeared to be to bend over in front of Harry and then wiggle their bum's, as has already been suggested, in the Lycra pants they were wearing they were driving Harry mad.

Hermione and Luna left the room a little behind the other two and with a small smile Luna whispered, "If I wanted to do those kind of exercises I would have to get Ron down here."

"Ask my mum, she will soon get you some clothes like these." Was the giggly whispered reply.

OoOoO

Ron was in the kitchen, working his way through a mountain of food, so Luna sat next to him she stole a sausage off his plate and she started eating it in a manner that could only be described as 'wickedly'.

The other three made their way through the kitchen and Harry said to the room in general and to Winky in particular, "We are just going up to have a shower and to change, then we will be back down for brunch."

Going up the stairs the girls took turns in leading, ensuring that Harry had a good view of both their posteriors, in their bedroom they both bemoaned the fact that their was no polite way to get Harry to lead.

In his bedroom Harry's scrambled brain started to straighten itself out, he was perfectly well aware of what the girls had been doing and anyway he knew what he was going to say to them.

Harry's shower pondering; _Why was it that he could see the sexy lines of Ginny's knickers under her shorts? More to the point and just as sexy, why couldn't he see Hermione's on her bum? Was she not wearing any? _

As he was deciding what to wear today, he found an Omega wristwatch on his dressing table, he decided on a dark red top and as he was putting it on he realised that earlier he had seen a clock in his bedroom; the place was starting to get organised.

By the time that the three arrived back in the kitchen Ron had nearly finished eating, so they joined him at the table and had their meal Ginny said, "I am very grateful and all that but there were a load of robes in my wardrobe this morning, who bought them?"

Winky blushed, "It was mees who dids it, yous had no clotheses and yous can't stays here with no clotheses, so mees puts them there."

Ginny realising that there was very little she could say to the elf without incurring Hermione's wrath, thanked her, as did Luna who was simply grateful to have something other than a nightdress to wear.

With the slightest of smiles at Hermione, Harry said, "For the next hour the three of you are going to sit with Hermione and her mum to pick yourselves some Muggle clothes and Ron, I suggest that after you have a shower and get dressed then you should sit down the far end of the table and read some of the Quidditch magazines that are on the dresser."

Resentfully Ron said, "But I don't have any clothes, mate."

Harry looked frustrated, "Did you look in your wardrobe? I cannot believe that Winky bought robes for the girls and nothing for you."

Ron was at his most belligerent, "I don't want charity!"

"What do you want then?" Unusually Harry responded in kind, "We rarely get what we want, I want a peaceful life, brilliant all I have to do is kill Voldemort and I am set. You need clothes, you can either accept the ones I will provide or you can go out in your nightclothes and find a job, earn some money and then bloody well buy some. A least you have a choice.

"You are not the only one here with problems, Hermione's parents have no home either, and goodness only knows how long they and you will have to live here.

"Now by the look on his face when I mentioned it, I believe that Mr Granger would like you to explain what Quidditch is all about, I cannot believe that any explanation Hermione will have given him will have been very enlightening." Dan was nodding and Harry continued, "Somehow, it must be an elf thing Winky knows everybody's size, the only input they will ask you for is to maybe choose a colour, but if I was you I would leave the whole thing up to the girls, they have far more idea than we do." Ron skulked away up the stairs and Harry continued, "At the end of an hour I have a special surprise for Mrs Granger but until then I have a little reading to do."

Quickly Dan said, "Before you go Harry, you should really all call us Emma and Dan, we are going to be living here for as you say we don't know how long and it will be a lot easier."

"Thank you Dan oh and if you have a minute later can you pick out what equipment we might need for the television room, but let Hermione and Emma choose the seating and the three of you choose loads of videos."

As he left the room and he went up the stairs he was listening and he heard Emma say excitedly, _'Do you know what my surprise is?'_

Hermione warily, _'Yes.'_

Emma, more excitedly. _'Tell me.'_

Hermione, deadpan, _'No.'_

Emma, now pleading, _'Please.'_

Hermione, _'What kinds of jeans do you like Ginny?' _

He chuckled.

Remus had told him that there were a few things for him to read on his desk in the his study, he hadn't actually been in the room as yet, but he knew that it was to the right as you faced the library on the first floor, so he went straight to it.

He didn't really know about such things, but from what he had heard he thought that it must be quite large for a study, ten people could quite easily study in here. As he entered it felt as if the room resented him but Remus had warned him about it and he went directly to the big desk and picked up the top piece of parchment, Remus had told him that Sirius had left it for him so he read out what was written on the top of it.

I HARRY JAMES POTTER BLACK, BEING THE SOLE LEAGAL HEIR OF SIRIUS ORION BLACK, HEARBY TAKE CONTROL OF THIS ROOM AND ALL OF ITS SECRETS.

Several things around the room seemed to glow in acknowledgement of the message and the tension in the room seemed to dissipate also more writing appeared on the piece of parchment he was holding. It was nothing particularly earth shattering or urgent, it simply told him which book to read to invoke the power that was available and all that it was, was like a glorified key to the restricted section of the library. In other words it would allow him to read all of the books and control the house, he could also give permission for others to do the same.

So being a good little Harry he ignored it, thanking 'the powers that be' that Hermione wasn't with him, if she had been he knew that he would never get anything done. He found the piece of parchment explaining all about the magic carpet, obviously Remus had put that there for him and then he read the book about the house wards. Next he went through the notebook explaining just what Sirius had done to animate the house, perhaps it had been a bit of an exaggeration to call either of them books because he finished reading all of it as the hour was up. So he went back down to the kitchen, where Ron was in the process of having a tantrum.

OoOoO

When he arrived back in the kitchen he wasn't particularly surprised that none of the Order had returned from the Burrow, however Ron was trying to argue with everybody and his beef was with the world, Luna was trying to calm him down.

Testing his new knowledge he whispered, "Put him in cell number one." Ron disappeared, but they could still hear his ranting coming from the cellar.

"Luna." Harry said apologetically, "The house has just locked Ron in one of the cells," Luna giggled, "Do you want to join him?" she nodded vigorously so Harry continued, "House can you please put Luna in the cell with Ron and give her a very comfortable sofa, if she wishes she can give permission for Ron to be released and she is to be let out alone if that is what she wants." She had a big smile as she disappeared, and the noise that had been coming from the cellar also stopped within seconds.

"Now that the distraction of Ron had been dealt with," Emma said with determination, "Where is my surprise?"

He beckoned with his finger and everyone followed him up the stairs to the room on the left of the front door it was completely empty so he said, "I am sorry that it is only fifteen foot by twenty-five but would you like this room as a private Granger lounge, I am sorry to say that you might be here for a year or more and if you don't have somewhere of your own it might well drive you batty."

Emma threw herself at Harry and gave him a huge hug, "Thank you for doing so much for us, you don't know us and…"

Harry stopped her with his finger on her lips and said quietly, "But I know Hermione, ergo you're worth it. Now Ginny, the next room is for your family."

He led them all across the hall into the slightly larger room that was already furnished in a style very similar to the Burrow this time he said, "All of this furniture was already in the house but if your mum or dad wants to change or add anything they will just have to tell Dobby."

With a very cheeky smile and apologies to no one Ginny threw herself at Harry and cuddled him in a similar manner to Emma then fluttering her eyelashes said, "Harry, you know how much of an awkward cuss my mum can be and still you do this for us, can I give you my body in payment?" Both of the girls and Emma burst out laughing, Harry simply looked confused and she carried on, "Anyway, you know that I'm not speaking to my mum either."

He smiled, "I know, but you can tell Ron and he can tell your mum. Then tell him that if he argues with or is unwarrantedly rude to anybody the house will just put him back in his cell, without Luna or the sofa. You might want to tell him the second bit first so he won't be able to blame you for not warning him and make sure that he knows to pass the message on to your mum because the same thing will happen to her, we all have the right to live here."

"Can we have our own phone?"

"Yes Emma just ask Dobby."

"And our own telly?"

"You can have what ever you want Dan, provided Emma allows you, keep in mind that it has to fit in the room and it must not be called Pamela Anderson."

"How did you know that he had a thing for her?" Emma asked giggling.

He was smiling as well, "You could say that a little bird told me." Now even Dan was smiling.

It was gone two o'clock before anyone returned from the Burrow, the first three were Tonks, Minerva and Kingsley.

Luna and Ron had gone upstairs but the others were in the kitchen, Tonks and Kingsley left the room and the Headmistress asked Ginny for her wand. Dan and Emma were asked if they could find something else to do so they went to their lounge with all of the catalogues, a very excited Winky and a tape measure that had been transfigured from a teaspoon by Professor McGonagall.

After being asked Ginny handed her wand over to Minerva who removed the Tracking and Underage charms from it, she used it to transfigure a cup into a hedgehog and back again into a cup and then she replaced the two Ministry charms.

The Headmistress handed Ginny's wand back to her and the two Aurors came back into the room, they were both smiling.

Kingsley took out a Ministry recording pad then asked Ginny for her wand and handed it to Tonks saying, "Auror Tonks will you please check what spell Ginevra Molly Weasley's wand was last used for?"

Tonks cast, **_'Prior Incantato'_** the smokey image of a hedgehog changing into a teacup appeared, she cast **_'Deletrius'_** the image disappeared and she said, "The last spell cast by Miss Weasley's wand was to transfigure a hedgehog into a teacup. Sir."

As they realised what was happening it was becoming increasingly difficult for everyone not to laugh, however Kingsley was not finished yet, "Headmistress McGonagall, would that be the last thing she did in Hogwarts before the holiday?"

"That would be quite probable." The Headmistress answered primly.

Kingsley signed the pad as did Tonks and then they had Minerva witness it before the senior Auror put the pad back into his pocket and everybody burst out laughing.

Tonks went and found Luna and Ron and the last spells cast by those wands was also checked and recorded.

Both of the Aurors excused themselves telling the others that they had to go to the Ministry and file a report on the state of the Burrow.

When they had settled down Professor McGonagall once again removed the two Ministry charms from Ginny's wand and handed it back to her, then she started talking, "As we surmised last night the Burrow is gone and as Harry suggested the biggest piece we found was not more than two inches and we have other evidence that he was in a bad mood.

"We recovered the bodies of four dead Death Eaters, they died from the killing curse, our spy told us that Voldemort killed them for, 'smirking at him,' this was behind their white masks mind you, all of the Death Eaters were _'Crucioed'_ when they returned to their base.

"The deaths are why the Ministry has to check the wand of everybody who was in the house, to make sure that it wasn't one of you who cast the forbidden spells."

Harry, Luna, Ginny and Hermione all snorted.

Minerva continued, "Miss Weasley, you must realise that magic from your wand is now untraceable by the Ministry's underage department, however it is not only Muggles who you have to avoid, you must also avoid any magical people who might report you. On your birthday you will receive the necessary paperwork removing that impediment from you."

"Mum is going to go ape." Said Ron.

Luna was the only one who didn't say something to the effect of 'Molly could do the other' and if her mother had heard exactly what Ginny had said, she would be reaching for a bar of soap to wash her daughter's mouth out.

The Headmistress acted as if she hadn't heard Ginny's comments and took a shrunken book out of her pocket, she rested it on the table and expanded it, it was a very large, thick, old tome called, 'Occlumency and Legilimency,' it was written by Griselda Marchbanks.

Professor McGonagall said, "This book has never been in print Harry, Mme Marchbanks wrote it over a hundred and fifty years ago, she has donated her personal copy to you, as she put it 'for the cause'. Miss Granger is perfectly capable of producing copies that will last for five days; if the book were copyrighted they would only last twenty-four hours. I am sure that she will be only too willing to teach the charm to anyone who requires a copy of the book and I would suggest that anyone who uses the book only uses a copy; the original is far too valuable for normal use.

"Mme Marchbanks will come in about a week's time and she will expect anybody who is to be trained with Harry to have read the first three chapters of the book at least twice. She will not expect you to understand everything that you have read, she told me that with tuition it will all, soon fall neatly into place for you.

"Now I have taken up enough of your time and running a school takes up a lot of my time even during your holidays, I do not want to be here when the others arrive back or it will take me an hour to get away, so I will say goodbye." She stood and Apparated away.

OoOoO

It would be a few hours until dinner so Ron and Luna went to the Weasley's lounge and the other three went up to Harry's bedroom and Hermione taught them how to copy books. They used Harry's first year school text books for targets, Griselda Marchbanks book 'Occlumency and Legilimency,' was far too valuable to practice magic on.

It was obvious to both of the girls that Harry had accepted that Hermione and Ginny were to be with him all of the way and between the three of them they decided that the precious book and all of the copies of it would for the time being remain in his bedroom. The girls had the obvious ulterior motive of with this arrangement they could use reading the book as an excuse to be in Harry's bedroom.

At quarter to six the trio made its way down to the kitchen for dinner, the Order had not yet returned so only Ron and Luna were there with the Granger's.

Ron asked, "How was your book?"

Hermione's eyes lit up, "It is beautiful, it's hand written on very fine parchment and the first three chapters are about four hundred pages."

The redhead baulked, "Rather you than me."

"From now on Ron," Harry said quietly, "if you want to keep with us there will be a lot of hard work and a lot of studying, you know what we are studying and why, and this is one of the things that is essential."

Ron didn't look too happy but before he could say anything seven Order members arrived and five of them were Weasleys and it was plain to see that Molly and Arthur were still in a state of shock. Harry gave Ron a dig and he went and helped his mum and dad to their family room, the other three boys followed him. Ron and Charlie returned after about five minutes but the twins had stayed with their parents, the elves happily served their dinner in their new room.

Needless to say dinner was a very subdued meal, except when Charlie had first thanked Harry for the family room but then he had asked if this meant that he had forgiven his mum.

Ginny exploded, "Harry is not a berk like Percy, just because he thinks that mum has her head stuck so far up her arse she can't see the daylight, it doesn't mean that he doesn't love us all. She has to start living in reality, Voldemort is out there and he isn't going on holiday for the next two hundred years, so he has to be dealt with. If you can find someone else to deal with him fine, otherwise the Order is free to try and help, and we will no doubt need help at times, but they mustn't get in the way, any of them."

After Charlie had apologised the rest of the meal was quite strained and as soon as they had finished eating Luna, Charlie and Ron excused themselves and went back to the Weasley lounge.

"How did you know?" Hermione asked Ginny quietly.

"I guessed," Ginny answered, blushing prettily, "from where I have been sitting, sort of on the inside, it was not too difficult to guess. So who else are we going to have?"

Both of them turned to Harry and he looked a bit perplexed and quietly said, "At this moment Gin I have absolutely no idea, I thought that it would be you two Ron, Luna and Neville, but Ron didn't sound too keen earlier did he and Luna is likely to do whatever he wants.

"Neville seems to have reassessed his life's main priorities and now is only interested in finding out what's in Hannah Abbot's blouse or bra. By the look of her it's quite a bit, so when he eventually reaches his target it might take him some time to complete his investigation."

Both of the girls giggled and he continued, "But I am not too worried, I was reading a book about Prophecy's that Professor Dumbledore lent me and it said that they seemed to have a way of being self fulfilling, if people are needed then the right people come along. The outcome might not be foretold but the circumstances leading up to the final confrontation and the decisions will almost seem to have a life of their own and be inevitable.

"The Professor also said that genuine Prophecy isn't like Divination, Prophecy is handed to us, actually the words he used were, 'inflicted on us'; whereas in divination we are trying to steal a look into the future and the future usually would sooner surprise us.

"Enough of morbidity, how is your room getting on Emma?"

"By Muggle standards brilliantly," she answered brightly, "Dobby found some elves to decorate also the carpets and curtains are done. He also said that the telephone would be in tonight, he told us that we would keep our Ashford telephone number." She saw the blank look's on everyone's faces and wisely said, "I won't ask how that works then. Most of the furniture will be here tomorrow, as will the television and we wondered about a computer and the Internet?"

"A computer and the internet is something we might well make use of Harry," Hermione said, "we should have our own or do you think we would need more than one?"

He thought for a minute before answering, "One in your lounge and one in the Muggle library, that way if your mum and dad want to do different things at the same time they can. No doubt you will want one in your room and maybe we will want more in the future, so make sure that whatever you get it can be linked to the Internet and that it can be expanded. I heard Dudley constantly complaining about the speed of his Internet connection in Privet Drive and Vernon refused to get a quicker one; we want the quickest we can have.

"I had thought about an intercom system for the house but I think that I have decided against it, the elves always know where we are and will give us a message if necessary. And unless the rest of the wizard world starts using telephones we only need the Order's phone moved into their room and a new one in the kitchen for the house, maybe later we will find that we need more.

"Now I don't know about anybody else but I am going to get an early night and hope that we don't get disturbed."

Remus said, "I have absolutely no idea what we were doing at the Burrow all day, we found everything meaningful in the first quarter of an hour and you already know about that, really the rest of the day was a waste of time.

"I will sort out the Orders telephone tomorrow and by the way I put the instructions for the magic carpet in your study, so let's go to bed."

On their way up stairs Harry thanked Remus and told him that he had already found the instructions for the magic carpet and could he sometime get the elf contractors sort out the mews.

OoOoO

Harry had had a quick shower and he was wearing sleeping shorts and a 'T' shirt when there was a small knock on his door, he went and opened it and the girls walked in dressed for bed, he shut the door behind them and said, "Yes?"

"Well you said that you didn't want to be disturbed tonight." Hermione said.

"And we thought that one of us might wake up with a nightmare or something and disturb you." Ginny added.

"So if we sleep in here with you we won't have a nightmare and so we won't disturb you if we did." Hermione finished, not really making a great deal of sense but smiling a lot, which was probably a lot more effective than logic or anything either of them had said.

By this time Ginny was already in the far side of his bed, she was also smiling and waiting for him to climb into the middle and it appeared that Hermione was definitely following him.

After the girls kissing his cheek and saying goodnight they all cuddled up and went to sleep.

None of them had ever felt so content.

OoOoO

**Authors Note;** For the last chapter I only received sixteen reviews and it makes me wonder what I am doing wrong, so **PLEASE REVIEW** if only to tell me what I am doing wrong. However I would prefer you to tell me what I am doing right.


	5. Chapter 5 Natanya

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book. 

**Authors Note:** We have had a bit of a discussion on my Yahoo group about my version of Elf speak and that it could be a bit confusing so I have tried to do something about it.

Ok, this time once again Little Snoring is a real place and it is in Norfolk, it too has a companion, which is called Great Snoring.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 05 Natanya.**

**Sybil's Muse:_ '_**_Right'_, thought the batty Professor, _'just a quick word today and leave, no need to listen to his histrionics'_. "Hi Tom, it would be good to miss the featureless marish today, it would save you a lot of irritation."

She left too soon to see the look of complete bewilderment on the evil snakes face.

_Wednesday 25th June 1997 _

In the heart of the pancake flat countryside of Norfolk sat the tiny village of Little Snoring. Nearly two miles outside of the village were the 'Creevey Dairies,' a large farm complex owned and run by Nicholas and Natanya Creevey. The couple were known locally to everyone as Nick and Tanya, it was unknown to all but a select few that Tanya was a squib.

Their two sons Collin and Dennis attended 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' and their daughter Eve would be starting next September the first, provided the school reopened. Half way between the dairy and the village was 'Creevey's Cavern' a rambling bungalow set in its own half an acre of garden in which the five of them lived. When Collin had casually said that his father was a milkman, he had never bothered to add that he also owned the biggest dairy farm in East Anglia.

This family was on high alert; Tanya's father Credence Clearwater, (Penelope's uncle,) kept her well informed of the goings on in the wizard world. If her father's worries hadn't been enough the Headmistress's had visited the previous day and her giving both of the boys Portkeys, which were to get the family out of danger in the event that they were to be attacked, had compounded their worries.

The three children were already squabbling in the rear seat of the large Volvo Estate; they were all going on a semi-working holiday to a game reserve in Zimbabwe. There the whole family were going to help the regular wardens cull an exploding Hyena population.

Nick's specialty was multi-trap clay pigeon shooting, using his Remington 1100 nine shot Shotgun, the clays came from various traps either side at one second intervals: he could generally get six or seven clays before he missed one.

Tanya's speciality was rapid fire pistol shooting for which she used a thirteen shot Beretta Cougar 8000 pistol, the object on a twenty five yard range, was to hit ten, two inch diameter targets as quickly as you could, Tanya usually managed it in about four seconds.

The pair hadn't been invited to Southern Africa on a whim; they each had many cups and medals to prove their prowess at their chosen sports.

It was most unusual that they would carry loaded weapons anywhere, but because of the dire warnings, this was precisely what they were both doing as they finally finished locking their home.

_09:00 Little Snoring_

There were fourteen pops and Tanya shouted, "Death Eaters!" she hadn't finished speaking before she had taken her first shot…

Bang! – one dead.

Bang! – two dead.

Boom! – Nick's shotgun decimates Draco Malfoy's groin and he vanishes using an emergency Portkey.

Bang! – three dead.

Bang! – four dead.

Boom! – Bellatrix looses her left arm from just below the shoulder and goes spinning across the garden.

Bang! – five dead.

Bang! – six dead.

Boom! – Snape looses his groin, he Portkey's away.

Bang! – seven dead.

Bang! – eight dead.

Boom! – Bellatrix has returned and her shield holds and blocks the next shot, however the impact appears to break her arm.

Bang! – nine dead.

Bang! – ten dead.

Boom! – Bellatrix's shield collapses and her right arm shatters and she Portkey's away.

The last Death Eater Portkey's away, uninjured.

The whole thing had lasted less than ten seconds from the first pop and the noise had been horrendous, for those who were not used to it, or even expecting it, it could well have been a major factor in the confusion of the dark wizards.

Tanya and Nick dashed into the car and Tanya shouted "Lets go!" so Collin and Dennis activate their Portkeys simultaneously; it hadn't quite been what she had meant but no matter.

Seconds later a large Volvo Estate full of Creeveys arrives outside the main doors of Hogwarts castle setting off nearly all of the alarms.

OoOoO

The Dark Lord had been having such a good time the first few days after Dumbledore had died, recruitment had been at an all time high and now from what this corpse in the corner told him before it had inconsiderately died from an overdose of _'Avada Kedavra'_ he had a disaster brewing.

Ten dead, two others who if they survived at all would certainly never father children or walk properly and his Bella, the shattered bones in her right arm were not too much of a problem. He had removed all of the bones from her arm, much as idiot Lockhart had done accidentally to Harry in his second year, she had then been given the potion to re-grow new bones. However to re-grow her left arm required a special potion that had to be administered within twenty four hours and the only one of his people who could brew the potion would be lucky if he ever woke up again.

She would need a silver arm; he would do it in a couple of days because she had failed him so he would let her suffer before he gave her the new arm. It was quite a well-known fact that forgiveness was not his strong suit, the reality being, it was a suit he would sooner not have in his deck of cards at all.

He couldn't understand it, why didn't being a Death Eater appeal to the caring types from Hufflepuff, come to that he didn't get that many from the other two houses either, only the odd misfit. He wouldn't mind if they had a hospital, well a ward or maybe a small room, but Snape demanded all of that space and it was the only dry space in the building, he would be thinking about that later.

If he had a hospital he could torture people and then they could be healed and then he could torture them again, he idly wondered what the world record for retaining your sanity whilst being 'Crucioed' was. He would think about this later as well.

Because now he had to ponder what to do next.

OoOoO

Collin and Dennis were getting out of the car and Eve was excitedly unfastening her seatbelt asking, "Where are we?" it was a question their parents also wanted answered.

"Hogwarts." Said Collin, stretching.

"Wonderful." Exclaimed Eve, as three people came out of the front doors, two of them had their wands drawn but they put them away as soon as they realised just who and what had arrived outside the door and had set off nearly all of the school's alarms.

Telling the story of what had happened took nearly an hour, which was far longer than the event had lasted.

Professor Flitwick went to collect some Order members and check on the Creeveys house.

Professor McGonagall introduced Mrs Figg, who to everyone's relief had taken over as caretaker from Filch, who the new Headmistress had sacked for being abusive, as the students were departing the castle.

It didn't take McGonagall long to realise that what the Muggles had packed for their trip to Africa was not going to be very suitable for a protracted stay in central Scotland. So as soon as the Order returned four of them were dispatched with Tanya and her gun with two spare clips of ammunition to virtually empty the house into the four expandable trunks they took with them.

The Headmistress had anticipated from the reports she had received from her spy that if they were lucky they would have several families staying in the castle for safety, if they were unlucky Voldemort would be getting too much of his own way.

As Harry had so succinctly put it houses we can rebuild, there is no known cure for death, it is permanent.

With this in mind she had had the house elves prepare several guest suites and the Creevey family were the first to occupy one of them, they could always prepare more if they were required.

OoOoO

Voldemort had a brilliant idea, he would send Wormtail on a recruiting mission and so he called Pettigrew to him.

"Wormtail, at two o'clock tomorrow morning you are to go to the Greengrass home and murder the parents in their sleep and then you will give the daughter this letter inviting her to join my noble cause.

"She is a clever girl and she is in Slytherin House so because she is good at potions she will join our valiant effort."

Peter was well aware that he wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree but he didn't think that it was that which prevented him seeing the link between her being good at potions and the girl wanting to become a Death Eater. However the rat had learned not to ask questions of his master, it might well have been the only thing he had learned, so as soon as he was out of the Dark Lords sight he read the letter.

_Miss Greengrass, _

_As you now seem to be without parents, I invite you to join my happy band to help me conquer the world. _

_I appear to be without a potions maker at the moment and you could fill that position admirably. _

_There are several young men here one of whom I am sure will be prepared to take you to his bed. _

_Looking forward to your cooperation. _

_**Voldemort. **_

_Lord and Master of the Universe._

Wormtail had never been noted as a ladies man either, or of having a way with words so to speak, but he had read the letter from Voldemort with horror and he very, very quietly muttered, "He really needs to work on his people skills."

OoOoO

When breakfast had finished all of the others had left Hermione, Ginny and Harry on their own and he said, "Dobby are their any more rooms on this floor?"

The strangely dressed elf replied, "If you come with Dobby I is showing Mr Harry Potter sir and his friends."

He led them out of the kitchen to the small hall at the foot of the stairs; the old very dark paintwork was still on the walls and woodwork so it was quite dark. Dobby produced what looked like a bluebell flame in his hand and for the first time they could see that there was a door to the right of the stairs.

Dobby said, "Others can enter only with Mr Harry Potter sir's permission, Winky and Dobby have cleaned the rooms, but Mr Harry sir must be very careful."

Harry opened the door as Dobby left, he gave the two girls permission to enter, the last time Dobby had given him a warning like that he had lost all of the bones from one of his arms. Consequently they were all a bit nervous, thinking that it was most unusual for elves to give warnings like that and they closed the door behind themselves.

The corridor that they were in was like all of the others in the house, clean, light and bright; it had three doors one left, one right and one straight ahead.

Harry asked, "Which one first?"

"Left, right and ahead." Ginny answered and when Hermione asked why she simply shrugged her shoulders; so they went into the room on the left.

"Don't even touch anything!" Harry said straight away, the room was full of armour and weapons and it projected a strong feeling of evil, luckily both of the girls could feel it as well so they immediately left the room and as they shut the door the feeling faded away. Having an argument with Hermione about the room would have been the last thing he would want.

"What on earth are we going to do with that lot?" he asked.

Hermione said, "Well the easiest thing is often the best and the easiest thing would be to just leave it all there, we can always do something else with it all later if we should change our minds."

The other two agreed with her and they went straight across the hall into the room on the right.

It was a potions store and a library of potions books some of which looked really useful but some of them like _Moste Potente Potions_ and next to it on the shelf _Even More Potente Potions,_ the trio were certain contained some dreadful things. So they left the books alone and looked at the potions that were stored there amongst the things like Pepper-up-Potion and Dreamless Sleep Potion were things like blood restoratives and Skele-Gro.

They had no intention of carrying out a detailed examination of everything they just wanted a general idea of what was available so they left the room, again closing the door and went to the last room.

The room was forty foot by twenty-five and it was an immaculate potions laboratory, everything was spotless.

Harry said, "It would almost be a pleasure to do potions in here, almost."

"And I thought that you preferred the girls toilets with Moaning Myrtle." Hermione said chuckling.

Two could play at that game he thought, "Actually I rather liked the cat lady I met there."

Hermione turned crimson and it turned out that Ginny didn't really know the whole story, so they related it all to her and they were laughing as they left the hidden rooms and went up to his room to read the Occlumency book.

It had been a relatively quiet night and morning, Remus and Tonks had been called out earlier but it hadn't seemed to be particularly urgent, it was one o'clock and five of them were sitting in the kitchen eating lunch.

Ron and Luna were having their lunch in the Weasleys lounge Arthur having gone to work; Mrs Weasley was still an unwelcome visitor when any of the trio was in the kitchen. Although Molly did seem a little better today, it would likely be several days before she questioned the whereabouts of her daughter; her mother's absence neither pleased nor displeased Ginny.

As they were finishing their meal Hermione looked quizzically at Ginny and asked, "How can you just ignore your mother when you know that she is so distressed?"

Luna and Ron had walked in followed by the Headmistress and all three sat down just as Hermione had asked her question and looking straight at her brother Ginny answered, "The main thing is that I know that she is safe and physically well.

"However, her mental condition is of her own making, she had it spelled out to her in words of one syllable by four people and she, in her pigheaded stubbornness, ignored everyone else and consequently forced me to save her arse.

"I faced Tom Riddle in my first year at Hogwarts and as Harry will confirm it was not something I would ever describe as pleasant, but her inflexibility forced me to face Voldemort, which is at least a hundred times worse. Meeting Voldemort is not generally top of my 'to do' list on a Tuesday, but the stupid bat wouldn't even let dad have a Portkey so fundamentally I was forced to save them and let me make it clear, at this time I have no problem with dad.

"However if dad starts preaching her line that Voldemort is someone else's problem then he can soon be added to my very own personal shit list. Snake eyes is everyone's problem even if all they want to offer is passive non interference, fine, just make sure that it is non interference. Not something totally detrimental like 'I don't want to interfere so you mustn't either,' that is probably one of the main reasons the evil sod became so strong in the first place."

Ginny cracked and started crying but she was sat between Hermione and Harry and they instantly started cuddling her.

Everyone thought that Ron had a death wish, "Why on earth do you want to go and fight him?" Ginny's wand flashed and Ron had a severe case of 'Bat Bogies', "What was that for?" Ron wailed in confusion.

"Want, WANT, **WANT!**" Ginny screamed at him, "Nobody wants to fight Voldemort you idiot, the people who eventually face him will be the people who are prepared to and there won't be one of them who will want to face him. Harry has to face him and Hermione and I will be there for him and we have no doubt that there will be others, it is in me and it is almost a part of me something I have had to do probably since the Chamber of Secrets."

"Well said Miss Weasley." The Headmistress said, trying to ease the situation slightly, "Everything you said is absolutely true, look at your parents, they couldn't face Voldemort even if they tried, they froze just being in the same room as him, in a fight they would simply become a liability. I am not sure that I could face him, in fact I am pretty certain that I couldn't, so I will lead the support team to the best of my ability and help Harry, also whoever is with him as best as I can.

"Now as entertaining as this conversation is, it is not the reason I have come, I have what can I suppose could be called good news.

"This morning at nine o'clock fourteen Death Eaters attacked the Creeveys at their home in Norfolk, none of us knew it, but their parents are competition marksmen and the Death Eaters were the first to find out. Their mother Natanya killed ten of them, each was shot neatly between the eyes with a pistol.

"Nick their father uses what I have been told is a nine shot pump action shotgun, our medical people who examined the splattered remains tell us that he shot the groins out of Severus and Draco before they Portkeyed away. Also they believe that the arm they found once belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange, if she claims it soon enough they think that it could be reattached." This was said with a small smile.

"One Death Eater Portkeyed away unhurt, if he returned to his master, I very much doubt he survived for long after telling the tale to Voldemort.

"Collin told me that he believed that only one spell had been cast and that it was a shield by Bellatrix, which collapsed after being hit the second time by the blast from the shotgun and he was almost certain that her arm was shattered from the impact. If you hold up a shield in front of an impact weapon then the shield must absorb the energy of the impact. Nick explained that the shells he was using were designed to bring down big game, effectively her shield was being hit with a weight of a ton travelling at a thousand miles an hour, it would not be surprising if her arm were to be shattered.

"If he was not a happy bunny before goodness only knows what he will be like now, so do we have any guesses as to where he will go next?"

"I wouldn't mind hearing a story like that everyday," Harry said, "but as to what he will do next…I have no idea."

Hermione mused, "He has tried several large groups, maybe he will try a solo effort?"

"You mean attack somewhere on his own?" asked Ginny.

Harry shifted in his seat thinking, "More likely send in a rat to cause as much harm as possible and then leave at the first sign of trouble."

Luna said dreamily, "You mean Pettigrew don't you? I don't see what you could do about that." She wasn't so 'out of it' as people often thought.

"I fear that you are correct Miss Lovegood," the Headmistress replied, "if it happens, then we will just have to pick up the pieces."

"Whatever," Hermione said with a determined expression, "we will do our best."

"Gin," Ron asked, "can you do something about these bogies? Please?"

Hermione, Harry and Ginny had a whispered conversation after which Hermione cast a whispered charm on Ron.

"Nothing's happened." Ron moaned.

Luna looked sad, "I can't kiss him like that."

"But you can now," Hermione said, "If you wait for a bat to fly away, then you can kiss him, they won't start again until you have finished kissing him, also when he is eating they will slow down until they figure that he has eaten enough. He needs something to remind him to reign in his gut reactions because they are usually wrong."

Whilst Hermione had been saying this Luna had tried kissing Ron and sure enough the bat's stopped until after she had finished, Luna thought that it was wonderful and kept giggling, "How long will it last?"

The Headmistress smiled at the trio and said, "If it is still with him when school starts then you are to find a way to cure his affliction."

What Professor McGonagall had said combined with Ron's dejected expression changed Luna's giggles into great hoots of laughter and the trio soon joined her.

OoOoO

After exploring the rest of the basement the rest of their morning had been spent reading the Occlumency book, but reading something that you only vaguely understand is a bit depressing, even for one of Hermione's dedication.

So this afternoon they were going to decide on what to do with the first floor, Harry thought that the problem would be stopping Hermione losing herself in the library, but for now they were alone in the kitchen.

Harry dived in, "The first floor has a general study, the library, a very large room and the Masters study, which you will not be comfortable in until I have done something to sort out the wards that are on the room."

To Harry's and we might add Ginny's relief Hermione butted in by saying, "I must admit that I have poked my head into the library and I think that it will need a lot of time to tidy it up, we have a load of other things to do so I suggest that we leave the library until we need it a bit later."

He tried to keep the relief out of his voice, "Ok agreed, did you happen to notice whether there was somewhere in there to sit and read?" He was pretty sure that Hermione poking her head in would mean that she had a fairly comprehensive look around, even if she considered it to be a quick peek.

"No there wasn't," she answered, "it was just rows and rows of books with additional piles of books on the floor."

Ginny asked, "Are our numbers going to increase?"

"That sounds like a loaded question Gin," Harry asked, "What are you getting at?"

"Well there's a Granger lounge and a Weasley lounge shouldn't there be a Harry's lounge?" she asked with a cheeky smile.

Hermione nodded and smiled and Harry thought for a minute before saying, "I keep thinking eight but that doesn't seem to make any sense, I have never heard of eight being a magical number."

It was quiet for a few minutes and Hermione pondered, "But seven and one would be, it could be you leading seven?"

Ginny jumped in, "So are we looking for three boys and two girls or what?"

"Hermione could be right, it could be seven and one." He said quietly, "But we are not going to look for them just yet, let's see if they find us first, we can decide in the future if we need to go looking. Right let's go and have a look at the first floor."

At the top of the stairs the first room on the left was the study, so that was where they started; it was the same size as the Master Study directly across the hall, fifteen foot by thirty. The old décor had gone nevertheless the superb quality furniture had been retained, even if it had undergone a metamorphosis having been reupholstered in burgundy, which went well with the new gold coloured carpet and curtains.

The dark stain had been removed from the wall panelling and all of the other woodwork, all of it was now uniform light oak, the gas lighting having also been replaced by bright even electric lighting. There were half a dozen comfortable armchairs for sitting and reading four desks each with its own chair and eight additional chairs for sitting at the desks if needed. Both fifteen-foot end walls were completely covered by empty bookshelves. The only other pieces of furniture were a coffee table, six side tables beside the armchairs and a stationary cupboard, which was found to contain various coloured pens, pencils and notepads along with all of the normal wizarding parchment, quills and various coloured inks.

The silence was broken by Hermione, "I haven't looked in here before but what a wonderful room for studying."

It was too perfect and Ginny couldn't resist it, as with a cheeky grin she said, "That could possibly be why it is called the Study."

Hermione tried to give Ginny a withering look but all three of them finished up laughing and eventually Harry said, "We might want to put a computer or two in here later but for now I don't think that we need to do anything to this room, do either of you think we should change or add anything?"

None of them could think of anything that really needed to be done to the Study so they decided to look at the Master Study, which turned out to be a bit of a disaster, basically the room didn't want the girls in it. Nothing Harry could say to either the house or the room made any difference, if either of the girls tried to enter she felt sick and had a headache and as soon as she came out she felt fine. He concluded that he would have to spend some time looking at the wards and then they would decide what to do with the room; so they went to the large room over looking the park, which the girls had already decided would become Harry's lounge.

The room was twenty-five foot by forty and at the moment it was big and empty, no, make that very big and empty.

Looking around forlornly he moaned, "What on earth are we going to do with this?"

"We are going to call in the cavalry." Hermione's verbal expression had totally confused Ginny. "Winky!" she called.

Pop, "Miss Hermione, what can Winky be doing for you?"

"Winky, please can you bring my mother up here with the books and the tape measure?" she asked.

With a big smile and a pop the little elf left, two minutes later Emma followed Winky into the room.

Ten minutes later Harry left having told the foursome that he was going to try to sort out some wards and if they wanted him to knock on his study door, he was far from certain that any one of them had heard him.

OoOoO

As he went and sat behind the desk in his study his mind was in a whirl and he started thinking.

If possible this was worse than clothes shopping, all four of them were talking at the same time and no one was listening, girls, well all females really, were they a different species? It was a question to contemplate for the future.

He didn't truly think so, it was just that girls would list their priorities differently, if you gave them a choice between going shopping for a new dress or coming to Quidditch practice they would go shopping. Bonkers Ron called it and he wasn't right about many things and unfortunately he probably wasn't right about this either, it was just that girls' minds seemed to work a different way.

A ghostly head arose from a silver chalice that he had detected as being magical on his first visit, it spoke to him, "My name is Bob and I can see that you have discovered why, in over five hundred years, women have never been allowed into this room, it is a place where a man may come for a bit of peace and quiet.

"I don't know how they do it but they all can you know, all of them talk at the same time and none of them seem to listen but then they all come to the same conclusion, personally I think that they are all psychic.

"Sirius thought that they all knew exactly what they wanted all of the time and all of the talking was done just to confuse us men, that could just as easily be true you know, I was always confused. In a minute one of them will come and ask you about something, it doesn't matter what it is or what you answer for that matter, she will say something like ok Harry then go away and they will do just what they have decided to do already."

After a couple more minutes chatting there was a tap on the door, Harry answered it and it was Ginny, "Hi Harry have you any idea what colour you would like the curtains to be?"

"I think that black would be good is that ok Gin?"

"Yeah that will be fine, bye." She said as she went back down the hall.

"Hold on a minute," said Bob and he disappeared, he was back in thirty seconds, "They have just ordered blue curtains, but you didn't really want black ones did you?"

"No, I don't actually care if we even have curtains let alone what colour they are."

Bob looked horrified, "Don't ever tell them that, to a woman these are things of great importance and if you tell them that you don't care you won't hear the last of it for weeks."

"We were talking about shopping the other day I said that I thought that shoes were clothes." Harry said glumly.

"I bet that went down like a lead balloon."

"I was given the look."

"I know the one I used to get it all of the time and 'men' is the other one."

"Yes, well I get 'boys,' it's the same thing though, but if I say 'girls' I'm in all kinds of trouble. I'm supposed to be doing something about reading the books you know?"

"Oh fiddle faddle poof! There it's done, now you will be able to read them all and if you want the bushy haired one to read one of them you only have to take it to her and give her permission to read it and then she be able to read it and you will be able to, same for the others as well. Very clever that bushy haired one."

"Hermione? She's brilliant," Harry said, "and its saved my bacon a few times as well, I will tell them that I cannot do anything about the wards on this room until I have lived here at least fifty years."

"If she asks tell the bushy haired one that it is because you are a Potter and it will take at a minimum that long for the room to accept you. It looks like they have just about finished Harry, you had better go back to them and don't mention the curtains, when the blue ones are up after a day or two just say to any one of the three, 'I thought that I asked for black' and they will answer, 'no it was blue you asked for,' then add something like, 'and don't they go well?' however they might add, 'did you really want black?' just say, 'no the blue curtains are lovely' never say they're ok, or they're all right. Or you will be back into the look again. Just call if you want to talk again, bye."

"Bye Bob." Harry said and then he thought that he should have asked who he was, he was a nice old boy though.

So he slowly made his way back to his lounge, thinking that he had found a source of information that might well help with one of the deepest mysteries of the universe, namely girls.

OoOoO

Lord Voldemort was feeling very sorry for himself, he was having an image problem; he had always attempted to portray an image of being mean, cruel, heartless and a bit of a sadist, well quite a lot of a sadist actually. The truth of the matter was simply, that it was the truth, he was mean, cruel, heartless and a truly world class sadist and once again the truth of the matter was that he was very proud of his reputation.

Now he was afraid that his reputation was going to be tarnished and he was going to be shown as having…compassion.

He was going to have to give Bellatrix a new arm and she had only suffered for eight hours without any pain relief and she had failed him, just this morning. How slapdash could you get losing an arm? An earring ok, even an ear but an arm, how careless?

However much he was loath to admit it he needed her, he had tonight's escapade covered but after that he would need a leader and that was something the worm was not, he was a loner. The simple fact was nobody would listen to the rat so he had to work alone, he was all right backing up Bella or Snape but otherwise he was a completely useless leader.

Why am I even berating Bella he thought?

Snape and the Ferret, yes he had learned that name from Barty Crouch before his demise, they had lost their bloody wedding tackle for god's sake.

Now in the all time top ten list of 'Careless Acts You May Wish to Possibly Avoid,' that must be right up there with the best of them and it was going to be weeks before they were good for anything if the fools even managed to survive that long.

All of my best lieutenants are in Azkaban he thought and I really need some more but if I go and do Bella's arm now she will be fine again by this time tomorrow and then they could get some more real work done.

OoOoO

Harry had arrived back at his lounge just as Dobby was calling them for dinner so they all trooped down to dinner and tonight Remus and Tonks were there as well. He asked Remus if anybody had been to visit his cousin yet and Remus told him that Hestia Jones was going to the school the next day and if there were any problems Remus promised to let him know.

Tonks had become embroiled with the other three females in the ongoing discussion concerning the furnishing of his lounge and Harry thought that not listening was preferable to a blinding headache. There were now five of them all talking at the same time, so he decided to chat with Dan and Remus.

"Well Dan, how did you get on with Ron explaining Quidditch to you?" he started.

"Pretty well, I think that I now have a fairly good idea of how the game works and he told me that I should support some team called the Chudley Cannons."

Remus laughed, "Trust him, the Cannons are pretty useless, personally I support the Holyhead Harpies."

"That would be a pretty good team for you to support Dan." Harry said smiling, "They are a very good Quidditch team and knowing your fondness of a certain 'Pamela' they are all girls, which will give you something to support even if they don't win. Are there any pictures of them in those Quidditch magazines behind you Remus?"

"Of course there are." He answered picking up the magazines and the three of them then spent a happy hour thumbing through the copies looking at pictures of the Harpies, some of which made it very obvious that the 'Quidditch Weekly' was a men's publication. A rising star was the title given to Gwener Jones who was Gwenog, the team captain's, younger sister and she had assets that easily rivalled Pamela's, so Dan instantly adopted her as his favourite Quidditch player.

A while later Emma asked, "Have you three finished discussing Quidditch yet?"

"Yes," Remus answered harmlessly, "Dan has just been picking out his favourite team and player."

"Oh, what team did he pick?" asked Ginny innocently.

Harry winked mischievously at Tonks and smiled, "The Holyhead Harpies!"

Tonks grinned at Emma and said, "Then I bet that I can guess who his favourite player is." As she was talking she was morphing into a passable replica of Gwener Jones, except maybe Tonks had become a bit bustier.

Remus tossed the open magazine over to Emma and she was amazed, so they had to go into a long explanation to both of the Muggles about Tonks' Metamorphmagus ability.

Harry asked Remus if he had managed to look at the mews out the back and Remus told him that he had looked at it with Dobby and they had decided to call in the elf contractors who would sort the whole mess out. Apart from anything else the whole roof probably needed replacing before anything could be done with the inside of the buildings, but the whole thing wouldn't take more than a few days.

Eventually the conversations died down and the trio went up to Harry's room and read their Occlumency book until it was time for bed.

OoOoO

**Authors Notes:** **Serious question: **Do you prefer the new form of Elf speech? Does it in actual fact notice? I really need to know so please tell me and as always **PLEASE REVIEW **if only a word.


	6. Chapter 6 Daphne

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book. 

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 06 Daphne.**

**Sybil's Muse:** _Oh she had found a nice one for him today in the Tarot_, "Hello Voldiebaby," Sybil said cheerfully to her wonderful crystal ball, "I'm afraid that I don't really have any good news for you today, except that you will be left without the first prize and a wonderful puzzle."

The Dark Lord showed his amusement by 'Crucioing' anything that moved in his sight for the next hour.

_Thursday 26th June 1997 _

The same way as the girls had made a unilateral decision to sleep in his bed Harry had decided that in order to get some proper exercise done he had to get down to the gym alone and early. As much as the idea appealed to him, in an abstract kind of way, he couldn't get any exercise done on the girls, naively he believed that they would kill him if he touched either them and anyway Ginny wasn't sixteen for another couple of weeks.

Harry had sneaked out of his bedroom and he decided to go and look in his lounge before he went to exercise, Emma and the two girls had told him about what they had been doing. But they were still into all talking at the same time and frankly he didn't have a clue what they had been saying, so he thought that he had better look just in case he was asked.

When he opened the door, even though there was still no furniture, he was amazed; all of the paintwork was white as was the fitted carpet, which was a deep soft shag pile. The wall paper was extremely pale green with a squiggly golden pattern running through it and then he smiled because the curtains were royal blue; don't say a word, yet, was his thought.

On his way through the kitchen he asked Dobby about the house money and was told that Winky had spent nearly all of it, so Harry added another thousand Galleons to the pot and told him to ask if he needed more. He realised that he had only told Winky that she could ask for money and he hadn't included Dobby, then he realised that he didn't know whether house elves even thought that way, or could get things against his credit, so many little things to learn.

He had spent half an hour working out by the time the girls arrived and started their bending routine and he noticed that the line from Ginny's knickers had gone, he was going to embarrass her, "You don't have the lines from your panties this morning Gin, aren't you wearing any?"

She had gone beetroot, he had won with her but Hermione took over and said, "So you spend all of your time watching our bums' do you Potter?"

Anticipating something like this he had his answer ready, "Actually I prefer watching your boobs bounce!"

His workout was finished but on his way out he saw the looks on the girls scarlet faces so he knew that he had won this round and all of the way up to his room for a shower he was silently cheering.

Both of the girls now had a problem, they normally bought the strap them down tight kinds of bras and they had each just bought half a dozen of them, how to persuade Emma that they were in urgent need of different ones.

One thing about starting a war of words with Hermione was that you could be pretty certain that she wouldn't give up until she had given it her best shot. Consequently breakfast was just finishing when she put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the smallest G-string she owned and showed it to Harry saying, "We wear these Harry, that is why the knicker-elastic lines don't show, but if you really like the lines we can go back to wearing regular knickers?" She was being cruel and she wasn't finished yet, "We can stop wearing bra's as well if you like because as you said, you like to watch our boobs bounce?"

Of all people it was Tonks who unwittingly saved him, as she came in she didn't notice the teasing and said, "Harry. We have a problem in Auror Headquarters and I believe that you might be just the man to solve it for us."

Hermione didn't want to let it go so easily, "This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain towel-less arrival would it and by the way you have never told us about that!"

"In extreme detail!" Ginny added.

Although crimson Harry tried to ignore them, "What's the problem Tonks?"

Tonks winked and mouthed 'later' to the girls, then answered, "The parents of one of the girls in your year were murdered last night and Minerva told me that Hermione had suggested that any girls from your year who were orphaned by Death Eaters, could come here, so I have come seeking your assistance. Make sure that you have your return Portkey with you."

It only took Harry a few minutes to get himself ready to go to Auror Headquarters with Tonks and they used a Portkey she had already prepared.

When Harry and Tonks had left Hermione said to her mum, "We both need some new bras, all of the ones we have bought are designed to keep our boobs as still as possible and it appears that Harry likes to see them bounce a bit."

Emma had a cheeky smile and answered, "So what you are telling me is that these bras are actually for Harry's benefit and if he didn't like bouncy boobs you wouldn't need them?"

"Precisely!" said both of the girls at the same time.

Her mum's smile had broadened, "Who am I to refuse when after all they are for Harry's entertainment." Even Winky was giggling.

OoOoO

The pair arrived in the reception area of Auror Headquarters and Harry tried to follow Tonks who had walked straight through the security checkpoint however the guard stopped him.

"Tonks." Harry said, in a very normal tone of voice.

She turned and said in the kind of voice he was glad was directed at someone else, "What's your problem?"

The guard said, "He doesn't have a pass and the Minister said that he isn't allowed in unless he has a pass signed by the Minister himself."

Harry squirmed but Tonks bellowed, "Kingsley!"

He was there instantly, "What seems to be the problem, Auror Tonks?" he asked in an even tone.

She smiled evilly and said, "We appear to have a guard who does not work for us, repeat what you just told me!"

Harry thought that it was rather foolish but the guard repeated exactly what he had just said to Tonks.

Kingsley picked the guard up by the part of his robe his name tag was attached to and said, "Mr Forsythe you are permanently removed from duty at this point, do not send a replacement, in future we will find our own guards. Tell that self centred fool Scrimgeour that he runs the Ministry and not the Aurors." He dropped the guard who scuttled away and the Shack said, "My that felt good, we have been looking for an excuse to get rid of him, let's go."

As they passed the first office he stuck his head in and said, "Can one of you go and sit on the desk and someone else make a roster and be on alert we might have trouble."

"You haven't dumped that Ministry lackey have you Kings?" a voice asked from within the room, when he answered in the affirmative there was a big cheer.

Tonks led Harry through several corridors and eventually to a door and she said, "Don't forget that she has just lost both of her parents to Voldemort and as yet she hasn't told anybody what happened. So if she will tell you try to use this recording pad, if you can, then she won't have to retell her story over and over, you just have to lay the pad somewhere like on the arm of a chair and good luck."

He nodded and slipped the pad into his pocket and then, rather nervously, went into the room, in the centre there were two comfortable chairs about six feet apart that were facing each other, another couple of chairs were by the walls. A very tall female with her long blond hair hanging over her face occupied one of the chairs in the middle of the room, however there was no mistaking Daphne Greengrass, even though she was curled in a ball in one of the chairs.

What to say was the first problem, so eventually he settled for something simple, "Hello Daphne, perhaps I can help?"

She looked up, "I've just lost both of my parents to Voldemort, just how do you think that you can help, Potter."

"You perhaps forget the story of the-boy-who-lived, he lost both of his parents to Voldemort as well and I prefer Harry, I think that I might be able to help you."

"You would help a Slytherin?" she asked almost hopefully.

He pushed the free chair until it was only about two feet from hers and then he sat down, "I would help anyone who has suffered our loss and I will help you if you will let me." He gently rubbed one of her shoulders.

Her bright blue eyes were looking at him like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, "Is what Malfoy said true then?"

He couldn't help a slight smile as he said, "Most of what Malfoy says is a load of dung, but what particular thing are we talking about, he might have accidentally stumbled on the truth once but it would probably be completely unintentionally and without him really knowing it?"

There was a little twitch of her lips, "He maintained that you were too 'goodie goodie' for your own good."

"Being a goodie isn't something I would think of Malfoy as being a particular expert on, but, if along with every other boy above third year, fantasising about getting to grips with your boobs disqualifies me from being a 'goodie goodie' then I'm afraid that I fail…miserably."

"Why miserably?" She definitely had a slight smile.

"Because I didn't get to grips with your boobs." He had a cheeky smile and she smiled a bit more realising that he was teasing her then he brought her back to earth. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really." She said, uncurling from her ball and turning to face him, she was only wearing thin summer weight pyjamas and from the look on his face her boobs were very evident, "Do you want me to hide them?" she asked cheekily.

Trying to be cool he tried to say, "Not on my account." But it came out in a very squeaky voice and the effect was totally ruined and if things hadn't been so serious she would have rolled on the floor laughing.

She started, "I must tell someone…"

He interrupted her, "If you are going to tell me the whole story can we use this recording pad, it will save you having to retell the tale a hundred times." He had taken the recording pad out of his pocket and when she nodded he rested it on the arm of his chair.

"Well from my point of view there is not actually a lot to tell, I was sleeping and this man, well he looked like a rat, was shaking me awake and he told me that my parents were both dead…" She had started crying so Harry moved forward and started to lightly cuddle her, she rested her head on his shoulder and carried on talking. "…Where was I…he told me that my parents were both dead and I had to come with him to make potions for the Dark Lord, he thrust a note at me and I went frantic."

She picked up a very large sword and drew it from its scabbard to show him, "This sword, it's called _'Myrkr-Kljufa,'_ that's ancient Norse for Dark-Cleaver, it belonged to my mum, it appeared in my hand and I hit him with it, actually it was more like the sword did the hitting and just took my hand along for the ride."

She lifted her head up from his shoulder and looked at him obviously wanting him to believe her and he said, "I have had some of that, ask me about it some time and I will tell you."

This seemed to reassure her a little and she carried on without moving out of his embrace, "It seemed to go into the end of the middle finger of his left hand and split the hand down the middle to his wrist; but the hand…'was it silver'?"

"Pettigrew!" Harry said, she looked at him confused and he repeated, "Peter Pettigrew, looks like a rat, silver left hand, he is also a rat Animagus and one of Voldemort's henchmen."

"That explains it then, he just seemed to dissolve, if he turned into a rat that would explain why I didn't see him leave, I thought that I was hallucinating. Anyway I jumped out of bed still holding the sword and ran to my parents' room, they both had had their throats cut so I grabbed Mimi and used the Portkey the Headmistress had given me and I arrived here.

"Here's the note, it's insane."

Harry took the note she was offering him and before reading it said, "If it is from Voldemort it probably is insane." He read the note:

_Miss Greengrass, _

_As you now seem to be without parents, I invite you to join my happy band to help me conquer the world. _

_I appear to be without a potions maker at the moment and you could fill that post admirably. _

_There are several young men here one of whom I am sure will be prepared to take you to his bed. _

_Looking forward to your cooperation. _

_**Voldemort. **_

_Lord and Master of the Universe._

"As you said, insane." He put the recording pad back in his pocket and asked. "So what do you want to do now?"

"Why did you put the pad away before you asked me that?"

"Because what you do next is not anyone else's business." He replied.

She pulled away from him reluctantly and then sat up straight folding her arms thus covering her boobs, "You mean besides kill this Pettigrew character and Voldemort? Well you said that perhaps you could help me and you have but…" her eyes were asking for more help something her mouth was reluctant to do.

He looked her in the eyes and said, "You will have your help and I have set myself the task of ridding the world of Voldemort so if you wish to help me I will welcome you. So who's Mimi?"

"Mimi is my elf, come out little one."

The smallest elf Harry had ever seen appeared beside Daphne and said, "Greetings Master me is Mimi."

"I am Harry Potter and I am not your master so you should call me Harry."

At the mention of his name Mimi's eyes went wide, she turned to her mistress and asked, "Is he Mr Harry Potter sir?" Daphne nodded, "Mr Harry Potter sir is the most Great and kind wizard."

Daphne looked at him with amazement, "House elves do not say things like that about people outside of the family, it is more of a testament to you than anything else I have ever heard."

The elf had moved to sit on his lap and he said, "It is also a testament to you that she is confident enough in your behaviour to be able to say it. I do not think that it would be a very good idea for you to go back home, so would you like to come and stay in my house?"

This was what she had been dreading, going home on her own and it only took her a second to decide, "Yes please, who else is there?"

Harry listed the residents and standing continued, "I will get some Aurors to help us as well."

She was disappointed as he moved away from her but as he was going to the door she moved her chair alongside of his and opened the button on her top that was between her breasts. She was going to give him a little show, something she had never done for any boy before and it would help prove just what kind of a boy he was. If he passed the test he was likely to get a bigger show later then maybe she would let him check them out properly, as soon as possible, please.

Harry went and opened the door and called Tonks, she came in with Kingsley and Harry sat beside Daphne while the two Aurors moved the spare chairs and sat in front of them.

Harry passed over the recording pad and after they had read that and the note, both Aurors made the comment 'Insane,' Kingsley copied the note and passed it back to Daphne then said, "You might want to keep that note as there are not many people that have notes from that deranged blighter."

In her no nonsense manner Tonks said, "So how did lover boy get you to talk?"

Daphne was now feeling a little better and also devilish, "Oh we started talking about my boobs and moved on from there."

The two Aurors burst out laughing and as they did, Harry leant across and whispered to her, "I hate to tell you this because I would like a better look but there is a button undone on your jacket, and I will get you for what you just said later."

She hadn't been sure before but now she was pretty certain that if she wasn't in love, she was at least in lust with this green-eyed boy, she knew that Granger and Weasley both fancied him as well, but he seemed oblivious. Now she would have to quickly get used to thinking of them by their given names or she would be in trouble with everyone and that she didn't need. What's wrong with me? Both my parents were murdered only hours ago and all that I can think of is a boy, well, more of a sex god really and all the sexier because he doesn't have a clue.

Ignoring the chortling Aurors Harry said, "Mimi!" the small elf appeared, "Do you know where Dobby lives?" the elf nodded. "Kingsley, can someone go with Mimi and bring Daphne's things, she is going to be staying with us for a while?"

"I'll go if you like Kings', are there some trunks there we can use?" when Daphne told her that there were Tonks turned to Harry and said, "When you get her home introduce her to all of the girls first, Emma will have to warn Dan."

"Who are Emma and Dan?" Daphne asked.

Harry said, "They're Hermione's parents and Dan has a bit of a thing about girls with…attractive chests."

Daphne smiled but Tonks said, "Say it Harry, Dan likes big tits!"

There was a knock on the door and another Auror poked his head in saying, "The Minister is coming, he's looking for Harry!"

"You two go!" Kingsley said, Mimi leapt onto Tonks' lap and they both disappeared.

Daphne picked up her sword then Harry held her other hand and said, "Harry Jane."

As Kingsley straightened up the chairs he, knew that Harry had a Portkey but he was wondering how Tonks had left with the elf and then he casually went to meet the Minister.

OoOoO

Voldemort was fuming and the current target of his ire was Sybil Trelawney, he hated her, not just the way he hated everybody else, not even the way he hated Harry Potter. No, he had a special kind of hatred for the incompetent old bat. He hated her because she was right and the bug eyed divination teacher and being right didn't belong together, everybody said so.

Even Potter.

Snape had heard him.

But he didn't trust Snape, so he would give him some 'Crucio' as soon as he was well enough, that cheered him up a little.

Thank goodness Bella was feeling better today, he had a nice little trip planned for her tomorrow.

The worm was a snivelling wreck in the corner and he wouldn't be able to do anything for a couple of days because of his hand. The beautiful silver hand he had bestowed upon him for performing his resurrection adequately had been damaged, seemingly beyond repair and a hand that flopped two ways wasn't very useful.

Worm said that the girl had just swung the sword at him and it had done that, it wasn't human, Worm's hand was split perfectly in half and the cut stopped an eighth of an inch from where the hand joined the arm. It must be the work of higher magic because he couldn't put the hand back together.

He was worried for a minute but he soon went back to his brooding over the bug eyed Divination Professor.

If he promised not to do anything else, would they let him into Hogwarts just to do away with Trelawney?

OoOoO

The pair arrived in the hallway of number twelve without any alarms going off, Harry assumed that it was because he was one of the people arriving, his other two girls were watching from the Granger lounge and hurried the pair inside.

"How are you?" both of the girls asked Daphne with genuine concern.

"Well I was pretty rotten, but Harry seems to have helped me over the worst of it, but it may well strike again later."

Luckily Hermione's dad was in the television room so her mum was on her own when they introduced the new arrival to her and with genuine interest Daphne looking around asked, "Is this a Muggle house?"

"No." Harry answered, "It is a mixture of both and Emma we are glad that we have met you on your own, we would like you to prepare Dan before he meets Daphne, her…um…attributes, may cause him…uh…concern."

Ginny and the two Granger women burst out laughing and even Daphne was smiling at Harry's embarrassment, eventually Emma said, "You will need some clothes. Winky." The elf took one look at their new guest and vanished, coming back with all of the catalogues, which had still been up in Harry's lounge.

"All of my clothes will be coming from home." Daphne told them.

Hermione smiled, "Do you have Muggle clothes and what kind of a bra do you use?" If Harry liked bouncy boobs then bra research would be essential.

Harry looked horrified at the second half of Hermione's question but Daphne didn't notice and answered, "I don't have any Muggle clothes and I never wear a bra I use a support spell."

"I really didn't need to know that." Harry whined but as usual nobody seemed to be listening.

However Ginny had become very excited, "I've tried to get my mum to teach me that charm but she never would, please will you?"

"It's quite simple really you just…"

"Enough!" Harry exclaimed, "If you want to discuss charms for girls…uh…bits, please do it in private somewhere."

"The thing is," said Emma who had a cheeky smile and was still totally ignoring Harry, asked, "will they work on a Muggle?"

"I would think so." Answered Hermione and Daphne at the same time and Hermione continued, "And if you added a little engorgement charm you could make them whatever size you wanted, or should I say, dad wanted." The four giggled again and again Hermione continued, "Look we have to get out of the way, let's go up stairs to Harry's room until Daphne's clothes come, Winky can you make sure that no one comes out of any of the rooms and sees us please?"

A minute later the five of them came out of the Granger lounge and went up the two flights to Harry's room, Winky joined them and Harry said, "We will wait here until Daphne's clothes arrive from her home, do any of you want anything to eat or drink? Personally I could do with a cup of tea."

Winky popped away and returned quickly with a tea tray and biscuits for everybody.

Neither Emma nor Daphne had been in Harry's room before so they were looking around but before either one could ask anything there was a small knock on the door and Tonks came in with Mimi.

Tonks had to return to work and everybody was introduced to the little elf then Mimi said, "Miss Daphne, you must be getting dressed."

"I suggest," Harry said, "that you use the bathroom."

Daphne was nearly in tears, "Do I smell?" she whimpered.

"It's not that at all." Harry said quickly, "The mirror in my dressing room can be…slightly abusive to girls."

"Yes," added Hermione quickly, "I've been called a hussy, a trollop and a tart."

Ginny giggled, "I mistook the room for the bathroom and she called me a whore, have you met Moaning Myrtle?"

When she said that she had Hermione continued, "Harry's mum was really brilliant at charms and Myrtle really liked his dad the same way as she likes Harry, so his mum charmed the mirror to be like Myrtle just to annoy his dad."

"I'm sorry that I doubted you." Daphne said to him and she quickly put her arms around him and cuddled him to her chest.

Ginny was mortified and whispered to Hermione, "She's so lucky, just look where she has his head resting."

Harry's head was planted firmly between Daphne's major assets and he could hardly breathe, but he didn't seem to be complaining, eventually she released him slightly and said, "Well what should I wear, you three are in Muggle clothes?"

Emma had been sitting on one of the sofas with Winky and the elf had just taught herself how to go Muggle shopping without using a telephone, Emma said, "We have put some Muggle clothes in the bathroom for you, they are similar to those, that these two are wearing."

So that she could go to the bathroom to change the tall girl reluctantly released Harry, who was in a bit of a daze and had an expression like a child who had had its favourite toy taken away.

Hermione looked hurt and said quietly to Harry, "If you like those cushions so much, I have some as well and you are welcome to use them whenever you want to."

"And mine!" added Ginny smiling cheekily.

Harry realised that unless something was done about the girls attitude there was likely to be a problem, for some insane reason they all seemed to want to be close to him, maybe Bob could help, he would ask him later.

OoOoO

Daphne emerged from the bathroom looking like she would stop the traffic around Hyde Park Corner; it wasn't that she was exceptionally beautiful certainly she was very attractive, it was just that at six foot two tall there was so much more of her.

She was perfectly proportioned but her long blond hair that reached half way down her back was nearly a foot longer than Ginny's red hair, which did the same on her five-foot frame. In addition the thirty-eight inch hips although perfectly in proportion for the taller girl would make either of the other girls look like barn door's.

In fairly tight blue jeans trainers and a white T-shirt she looked very impressive because, as we have previously mentioned, her chest was her biggest asset.

Hermione said quietly, "We would like to know what happened Daphne but if you don't feel up to it sometime later will be all right."

As Daphne said, "I should tell you all." Dobby arrived and told them that lunch was ready, so they held off the conversation and headed out of Harry's bedroom door.

Luna came out of her room and joined them as they passed it, then rounding the end of the balustrade to go down the stairs Ron came out of his room and said extremely nastily, "A flaming Slytherin, Greengrass what the bloody hell are you doing here?"

Ron vanished and Daphne burst into tears, Ginny and Hermione immediately cuddled her and Harry briefly told Luna what had happened to the tall girl.

For the first time any of them could ever remember Luna looked like thunder and stormed off down the stairs muttering, "If the insensitive prat has repented sufficiently he can have dinner but otherwise no food until tomorrow."

Emma started down the stairs apologising that she hadn't told Dan that they had a new guest.

By the time the four of them reached the kitchen Daphne had settled down again, at one stage Harry had cuddled her by standing her one step down from him, this put their heads virtually on a level with each other.

The new girl was introduced to Dan, who was fairly awestruck and reintroduced to Remus who hadn't seen her for a few years and he said, "You've grown, I haven't seen you since you were probably thirteen."

She smiled, "It's nice to see you again as well Professor Lupin."

"I'm not your professor any more Daphne, so I would like you to call me Remus please and I think that we should see what Luna has been up to?"

Everybody had sat down and the conversation carried on whilst they were eating.

Luna's expression could only be described as smug, "Well Mrs Weasley is also in a cell." There were gasps, "On my way down I stopped in to tell her that she would be having lunch alone because of what Ron had said to Daphne and she started screaming at me and she vanished, so I thought she had been incarcerated. So I went to tell Ron his probable punishment, Molly was still screaming but I couldn't hear her and when I told Ron that he would be missing food he started as well so the house very kindly extended the silencing spell around the pair of them and I came to sit here." She gave a big smile.

Hermione's assessment of the blond Ravenclaw had gradually been going up over the last couple of days and this had hitched it up another notch, "How do you reconcile loving Ron with leaving him in a cell having a screaming match with his mother?"

"If they are screaming at each other it is because that is what they wish to do, all that they need do is to hold in the Weasley temper, if Ginny can do it then they can do it. Ron still has bat bogies and he collected them by saying something extremely stupid to Ginny, he still cannot see what was wrong with what he said because he will not think about anything from anyone else's point of view other than his own.

"The bat bogies are a good case in point, they only allow him to eat about a half of the food he normally eats and he can't see that the rest of the food he would normally consume he does not need and by eating it he is just being a pig. We are not twelve years old any more and he has to consider the ramifications of his actions and stop behaving like he is still a child.

"Otherwise what is wrong with him is that he knows that if he went with you to face Voldemort he would freeze up and become a liability, it is also likely that his mother feels the same way. Him seeing Daphne looking like she is going to join Harry's Voldie hunters probably only made him feel worse and I would like to join you but that would just about finish him.

"It would be nice if you could find something useful for us to do it would make us and especially Ronald feel so much better about himself and everything else. Oh and Harry could I learn Occlumency please?"

Harry noticed Daphne start when Luna mentioned Occlumency and answered her question before she asked it, "You may both learn it, but you know that for the time being the book stays in my room and you have to read about four hundred pages that you will not understand, twice.

"So Daphne, are you going to tell them what happened last night or shall I?"

She answered, "I would prefer that you tell them please Harry." So Harry told the story as Daphne had told it to him, at the end she showed them Voldemort's letter and the vote of his insanity was unanimous, Remus of course also cursed Wormtail. Whilst Harry had been telling the story Hermione and Ginny had started to cuddle Daphne because when he reached the part about her finding her dead parents she had started crying.

OoOoO

Professor Flitwick came in with the Headmistress who said, "We were told that we would find you here Miss Greengrass. Well I suppose that it is good news your house has not been damaged by the Death Eaters and we were wondering if you would like it placed under a Fidelius Charm to protect it from those who are not welcome there?"

Daphne turned to Harry and asked, "What is the Headmistress talking about?"

He explained, "This house is hidden by a Fidelius Charm and if you went out of the front door and turned around you would not be able to find it again, obviously you wouldn't be able to see it either. This is excellent security but also it would be totally useless if nobody could see it, so it has what is called a secret keeper and if the secret keeper tells you where it is you will be able to see it when you go out. So the secret keeper has to tell everyone who needs to know the house's location and the Headmistress thinks that it would be a good idea to do this to your house.

"I do as well."

His saying that he thought that the Fidelius was a good idea seemed to have more influence on Daphne than the Headmistress saying the same thing and she asked, "Do I have to be there?" Professor Flitwick nodded, so she asked Harry again, "Please will you come with me?"

A quick look at the Headmistress confirmed that it was all right for them to go so he asked, "We will come and it would probably be best if you were your own secret keeper?"

"I was going to ask you."

"It might not be very practical, having to ask me to tell your great aunt Agnes where you live."

For the first time she gave him a big smile, "How did you know what my great aunt Agnes is like? She's a dragon."

"Mines called Maud, "said Hermione, "smell's like mothballs and heather." Daphne nodded.

"Ethel," Ginny added, "smells the same though."

"Mine was called Gertrude," said Luna, very dryly, "she blew herself up, we think that she was trying to concentrate the mothballs." Nobody could help themselves and they all burst out laughing. "It's not funny you know!" Luna said through her giggling, "She did kill herself." Then she broke down laughing again.

It took a few minutes but eventually everyone settled down and Daphne said, "Come on gang lets go." Luna didn't move and she added, "Come on Luna, hang on." The three girls went into a huddle, "We have just voted you an honorary member of 'Harry's Girls', so do you want to come?"

Luna was up like a shot and they all went to the hall and the Headmistress said, "If there is any trouble you are all to hang on to Harry and you Mr Potter are to get out! Don't hang around! Understood Mr Potter?"

At first Harry looked sheepish but then he looked at the Headmistress and said, "Provided that you and Professor Flitwick hang on as well." Minerva looked shocked but Harry added, "Buildings, money and magic can fix them, dead is dead."

She fixed him with a steely glare but it softened and she said, "Of course you are quite correct Harry."

The others were becoming used to it but for the first time Daphne noted the whole change in tone of the Headmistresses last statement, because it deferred her authority to him.

As it turned out setting the 'Fidelius Charm' was totally uneventful and all four girls thought that the highlight had been arriving back in the hall clutching Harry and giggling, Harry however was not amused.

"So what are we going to do now?" asked Ginny.

Emma who had heard the noise had come out of her room and said, "I thought that you were going to learn a charm?" She pushed out her chest and wiggled her eyebrows.

There was agreement mixed in with a lot more giggling but the tiny Professor interrupted saying, "Perhaps I should teach you girls one or two first." So Emma and the four girls followed him upstairs.

Harry was left alone with Minerva and she asked, "Is this four of them?"

"I believe that it is only three, Luna may prove to be our link with the outside and if we can persuade Ron into something like that he will probably be a lot happier. I believe that Luna would like to join us but she and I agree that it might well destroy Ron if she did something as…as clear cut as that."

The Headmistress didn't look too happy at the thought of four more orphans but she said, "You could also have the pair run the 'DA' for you, it does need to be restarted, that might make it even easier for them."

With that they said their goodbyes and Professor McGonagall left and for his part Harry decided to go up and talk to Bob.

OoOoO

Harry settled at his desk and called softly, "Bob!"

The head appeared in the chalice, Hello Harry, how are you today?"

"Well I have been having a bit of a problem with the girls being over amorous, have you noticed?"

"What you need young fellow is a set of rules, if you make them for that and other things there won't be too much of a riot."

Harry looked worried, "Just what does, 'too much of a riot,' mean."

"Well…" the ghost was thinking, "…nobody really likes rules and when the rules are designed to stop you doing something that is basically harmless and you really want to do it, well some people might take exception to them."

"I understand so what should we do first?"

"We have to give them a title, something simple, like, 'Harry's House Rules'.

"That sounds fine; how about the first rule being; Unprovoked argue…"

An hour later they had six rules and a clause that should help:

'**Harry's House Rules'**

1) Unprovoked arguing will result in imprisonment.

2) Unjustified screaming at people will result in imprisonment.

3) Being needlessly rude to anybody will result in imprisonment.

4) The kissing of Harry is to be confined to the cheek.

5) The kissing of Harry is to be limited to twice daily unless exceptional circumstances prevail.

6) Unwarranted sexual advantage is not to be taken of Harry.

**Note:** Harry reserves the right to add to this list as he thinks necessary because these rules are not designed to inhibit meaningful discussion.

Harry asked, "What do you think Bob?"

"I think that they are a very good start and that you are likely to be prevailed upon to at least modify them and you could suggest that rules four, five and six have; 'without express permission from Harry,' added to them. But make them fight good and hard for the concession, then they will think that they have won something but it should really be there now.

"Also you should obscure the same three rules from all but those who call themselves Harry's girls, imagine mad woman Weasley's reaction to them, or her son's."

"Ok," said Harry, "so how do we do that?"

Bob had already told him where to find the information on how to charm the writing onto the parchment for the rule list and so the same way he guided him to the more complicated instructions for selectively obscuring the rules as they had agreed."

"Is there a Pensive in here?" Harry asked out of curiosity.

The head highlighted the Pensive for him and then Harry asked, "Who were you and how come you are in a chalice in here?"

"Well I was," the spirit started, "Sir Robert de Mimsy-Porpington and your school house ghost, Sir Nicholas was my father and he was beheaded because my elder brother, who became known as Silas the Black, turned him in and that is also where the family name of Black comes from.

"I was banished to this chalice by Silas and some of his friends and I am only permitted to talk to those on the light side, so Sirius was the first person I have spoken to for nearly five hundred years. In 1666, the wizards put a charm around the whole row and after the Great Fire it became known as Grimm-auld Place, because it was all covered in soot it looked pretty grim and auld because it predated the Great Fire making it old."

Looking pensive Harry said, "Would you like me to try to release you? I do not like to see anyone restrained, against his or her will, if it is unwarranted."

"I must admit that the idea is appealing but I have been here five hundred years and another few will not hurt and I might well be of considerable use to you over the coming months because I know where to find nearly everything here and in the library. If you wanted me to, I could instruct the house elves as to how to tidy up the library and have them put the books most relevant to your search into the other study and we could set an embargo on the door to stop unwelcome visitors. Remember that I am not a ghost, I am more like a good Avatar and as such I am capable of a certain amount of magic, the three copies of that wonderful Occlumency book are now permanent, it will confuse her with the bushy hair."

Harry asked, "Should I tell her of you? If I do she will want to meet you and she will have a million questions."

"I think that it is better if we save that until later, but now I see that it is nearly dinner time so they have finished what they were doing and will soon be with you, so good bye for now."

"Bye Bob and you can set the elves to work on the library when they are not too busy."

So he picked up his rule list then went out to meet the others and they all went down to dinner together.

OoOoO

He used a sticking charm to attach the rule list to the wall alongside the door inside the kitchen; needless to say everyone came to read it and the adults hardly commented and just went and sat back down.

The reaction of the girls was slightly more spirited but the first to speak was Luna, "Thinking of Ginny, Ron isn't going to like rules four, five and six."

He answered, "Only Harry's girls can read those rules and you are an honorary Harry's girl so you can read them, so please just don't tell anyone about them?"

She was perfectly fine with that and she went to see Ron before coming back and sitting at the table; the other three however were no so easily placated, but Harry managed to stall them by promising to discuss the rules after dinner.

Arthur had decided to have his dinner in the Weasley lounge and the atmosphere was fairly strained at dinner so Harry asked, "How were Ron and Mrs Weasley, you seemed a bit quick?"

Luna giggled, "They were still screaming at each other, so I just left without even speaking to them, but I made sure that they both saw me there, I wouldn't want Ron to think that I had just abandoned him."

The rest of dinner passed uneventfully and after dinner Harry asked, "I am going up to the study, are you coming?" three girls followed him.

Luna settled in his room with a copy of the book and as soon as the others were in the study Hermione dove straight in, "So Potter what are these three rules for? I must admit that there were a few nice charms on the notice though."

He answered, "Well you know better than Gin or Daph' just what we have to achieve, hopefully it will be in this coming year and I don't think that we will get there if you girls are competing over me, because that is what it looks like from where I am sitting. It is distracting to me and even more so to you three and it is likely to get worse if there are seven of you, because when I thought about it that is what it looks like, god forbid but another four orphan girls from our year."

Daphne didn't really know what they were talking about so they had to explain about Harry and eight as well as their promise to the Headmistress regarding orphan girls in their years.

Right back to these rules, Hermione wasn't being sidetracked, "They're a bit cut and dried, aren't they?"

He thought for a minute and asked, "So what would you like me to do with them?"

The three girls chatted for a couple of minutes and Hermione, who seemed to have been appointed spokesperson said, "We have sort of agreed that some kind of control is needed, but couldn't there be a bit more flexibility, a bit of leeway?"

Again he thought for a minute and asked, "How about adding, 'without express permission from Harry', to them? So they would read:

"The kissing of Harry is to be confined to the cheek without express permission from Harry.

"The kissing of Harry is to be limited to twice daily unless exceptional circumstances prevail or without express permission from Harry.

"Unwarranted sexual advantage is not to be taken of Harry without his express permission.

"So how does that sound, to be going on with?"

Again there was a mini-conference and it was agreed that it was better, but they reserved the right to broach the subject again in the future, he had expected nothing less.

"Just one question." Daphne was smiling, "When do these rules stop, they can't go on for ever?"

Without hesitation he answered, "When Voldemort is really gone for good the rules come to an end."

"So when Voldemort is finished, "Ginny had an evil smile, "it's snog Harry senseless time."

It was she of the bushy hair again, but now her voice was full of compassion, "So are you going to tell these two what we have in store for them?"

He looked serious, "I don't think that it would be a good thing to go to bed on, I can't see Daphne getting a good nights sleep as it is."

Hermione looked to the tall girl and said, "If you are upset come down to Ginny or me, there is no need for you to be alone, that is one of the reasons you are here."

Daphne looked extremely grateful, "Thank you all so much, I have just lost my parents and you have all been just so good to me."

"Come on," said Ginny, "let's not be getting morbid, it's time for bed."

As they reached the top of the stairs Ginny gave Harry a kiss on the cheek and wished him goodnight, Daphne did the same before she went up the next flight to her room.

When they reached Hermione's door she kissed his cheek and said quite miserably, "Next time you need comforting I want you to use my cushions, you know how I feel about you, don't you?"

He realised that Hermione was a little depressed and from what Bob had told him he knew that it was her compassion for the other girls that was inadvertently causing it.

So he gave her an extra cuddle and said, "I know that you are my angel and without you it would all be for nothing." He tenderly kissed her cheek again and went to his room, for her part Hermione floated into her room as if she was on clouds, Harry had told her that she was his angel and she had to do her best so that she could cash in when it was all over."

OoOoO

**Authors Note;** I thank the few of you who took the trouble to review the last chapter, also those with your comments on the revised Elf speech.

I have come to the conclusion that I am entitled to withdraw my promise to update every Friday, this story has received less than 120 reviews from over 5,500 hits so if you don't care why should I.

I will finish the story but I will update when I am ready.


	7. Chapter 7 Susan and Lavender

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book.

**Authors Note: **I thank all of you who reviewed the last chapter and I never said that that I wouldn't post on Friday's it is just that I will not promise to do so.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 07 Susan and Lavender, **

**Sybil's Muse:** She was not very happy tonight, _it looked like several more people were going to die, still she must put a nice light positive spin on it and try to upset Mouldy Shorts_, "Good morning Tom, you don't do much better again today because you keep missing the best of the bunch. By the way, don't you have anyone there who can cook, I've been told that when you were here you were quite pleasant looking but now you are just skin and bones…and extremely ugly."

The Dark Lord was doubly annoyed today, of course Trelawney always annoyed him, but it seemed that his followers had quickly learned to keep out of his way when he had been talking to her.

But there was an easy cure for that, "Wormtail, come here!"

_Friday 27th June 1997 _

It had been a hungry and uncomfortable night for Mrs Weasley and her youngest son but when Luna had visited them quite early in the morning they both seem to have learned something so she asked the house to release them from their cells.

However the house elves refused to feed the pair until breakfast time, neither would they allow the Weasley matriarch to cook anything, they were both given a cup of tea and were told to wait until it was the correct time for breakfast.

Luna had gone to the exercise room Ron having declared himself to be 'too hungry to work out' went to the Weasley lounge with his mother, in reality he was also feeling rather hard done by.

The blond Ravenclaw had only been exercising for five minutes when she was joined by Harry and ten minutes later by the other three girls.

Harry asked, "Luna, I have been meaning to ask you how your father is?"

"He's in Patagonia looking for purple Wimbles and he seems to be well. Thank you for asking Harry."

Luna had seemed better the last few days so Hermione took a chance by asking, "Do you really believe in all of these strange creatures Luna?"

The girl who had always seemed slightly odd took on a serious demeanour, "I don't know that they do not exist so for the sake of my daddy I am prepared to assume that they do exist. When my mummy died he took it very badly and was completely broken for a long time, so I always try to ease his mind.

"If you were to ask me what I thought the probability of them actually existing was I would generally put it as being very low, except that in his last letter he told me that he has just taken some photographs of nargles. Personally I didn't even know that they had mistletoe in South America for them to live in, the pictures will be in the next issue of the Quibbler.

"And please don't tell anyone else what I have just said, especially Ronald." Hermione came across and gave Luna a hug.

It transpired that Daphne had spent the night cuddled up with Ginny and the little red head had talked about Harry's adventures for over two hours before the tall girl had eventually fallen asleep. On the way down stairs this morning Hermione had added that if they were very lucky, sometime, they would be able to get Harry to tell them the whole of the stories first hand.

Reluctantly Luna was not having breakfast with them, she had decided that it would be prudent for her to have breakfast with Ron and his mother in the Weasley lounge.

"Remus," Harry asked, "how are the repairs to the mews coming along?"

"Extremely well Harry, the elves say that they should be finished about mid morning, what do you want done with the upstairs?"

"How much space is there?"

"It's about forty five foot by thirty, what were you thinking?" Remus asked.

Harry asked, "Is that big enough for a three or four bedroom flat?"

"It's over thirteen hundred square feet," Dan answered, "that's big enough for either, so again what are you thinking?"

Hermione had been eating a banana and daydreaming about a certain green eyed someone's broomstick but she seemed to come out of her reverie, "If you are thinking of moving Mr and Mrs Weasley out there with Ron, it is a good idea. Put a kitchen in it as well, it will give her something to do and Ron somewhere he can go to stuff himself like a pig.

"It could be a problem though because Ginny won't go with them," Ginny was nodding at this statement, "neither probably will Luna but Ron should, it will give him more room to breathe and come to terms with himself, which is something he needs to do."

Harry smiled, "As usual Hermione has it in one, so what do you all think?"

There was a babble of conversation around the table and eventually Remus said, "As you can tell we all think that it could be a very good idea, if Molly will allow it to be and if they had their own telephone it could help. Although I don't think that they will use the phone much and I think that I should be the one to tell them and I will start with Arthur, it possibly wouldn't sit too well coming from you.

"As Hermione pointed out, Ginny will be a bit of a sticky point but I will remind her that if she stays in the house every time Molly gets wound up she will be locked up and that both she and Arthur owe Ginny their lives and she also owes a huge apology to their only daughter. It's not a nice thing to do but it seems that the only thing that Molly understands is a big stick and so that is what I will use if necessary."

With a wicked smile Harry said, "Thank you for volunteering Remus it saves me offering you a bottle of twenty five year old Firewhisky as a bribe to do it." Harry couldn't stand the agonised look on Remus' face so he carried on, "But being an honourable fellow I will give you the whisky anyway."

Having nearly finished their breakfast Daphne asked what they were going to do with their day and it was Remus who answered, "Well this morning I was going to put you through your paces and see how well up you are with your duelling, I will go to see Luna and Ron they may want to join you four, I will meet you on the fourth floor in about five or ten minutes."

Climbing the five flights of stairs from the basement to the fourth floor was not something that most people wanted to do ten times a day and when they reached the top they were glad that they were normally resident at Hogwarts.

Stopping on the top landing Harry asked Daphne, "How was your room?"

She answered, "The room is really lovely, I just wish that I was down with the other girls, well last night I was down with Ginny but you know what I mean."

"Well if Ron moves out we can play shuffle and you can move down and…" Harry had to stop at this point because they could hear the other three on the third floor landing.

The first thing that Ron did was to apologise to everyone especially Daphne, but neither Ginny, Hermione nor Harry were completely convinced of his sincerity towards the tall Slytherin.

The room they were to use was enormous, it was sixty foot by forty but it had a thirty-foot by twenty-five chunk taken out of one corner, still its floor area was over sixteen hundred square feet, ample room for training.

The group showed mixed skill levels with their duelling, Harry was the best beating Remus eight times out of ten, Ginny, Luna and Hermione were about the same level as Remus with Ron maybe slightly behind them. With her wand Daphne was a long way behind the others, but it was a whole different matter when Harry for some reason suggested she tried her magic sword.

'_Myrkr-Kljufa'_ blocked everything, even when all six of them were attacking Daphne at the same time, so she said, "It's alright me blocking all of this stuff but I'm not able to retaliate because if I use the sword offensively I would probably kill someone."

It was decided that Ginny would join forces with Daphne and the result was very good, the magic sword blocked everything thrown by any of the others at either of the pair, this left Ginny free to just stand there and attack at will.

After a few minutes of this Harry sent Ron to join his sister and still the other four couldn't get past the wonderful swords defence, this would be a wonderful addition to their arsenal.

So they carried on practising various combinations suddenly…Dong…Dong…"Stop alarm! … Harry Jane!" Harry shouted.

OoOoO

Harry landed on top of two very wet bikini clad girls, Harry had never seen so much skin, three seconds later he was joined Hermione, Ginny and Daphne. It took another minute and a half for Luna, Remus and Ron, who had to come down the stairs, to join them.

"Hi girls," Harry said, "sorry about landing on top of you."

"Well I for one was enjoying myself," answered Susan Bones, "until we had all these uninvited guests drop in." Then she giggled nervously but she was clinging tightly to Harry.

The three girls were sorting themselves out from the pile as Lavender Brown started crying and then seconds later Susan joined her. He released one arm from Susan and hugged Lavender with it, the other three girls plus Luna immediately joined in comforting the pair of them.

Harry worked himself free of the girls and was going to call Winky, however she was standing there holding out two enormous towels for the girls. Daphne seemed to have the best hold on Lavender so he gave one of the towels to her and then he wrapped Susan in the other one and picked her up and headed down to the kitchen saying, "Will you carry Lavender down to the kitchen, please Ron."

Ron was not amused and bellowed, "I'm not carrying that strumpet any…" Ron disappeared again and both of the new girls looked amazed, however the other four couldn't help giggling.

Daphne picked up Lavender as she asked, "What happened to Ron and I don't think that it is very nice you all giggling at me being called a strumpet?"

"Sorry Lavender," Hermione said, "but we are not giggling at you, we were giggling about Ron being locked up again and missing at least one more meal." Some more of the Order had arrived so she continued, "We have a lot of things to tell you but before we do can you tell us what happened?"

When Hermione asked Lavender started crying again and buried her face in Harry's shoulder, she was sat the other side of him from Susan who started telling their story, "Today is Lavenders birthday and we were going to have a Bar-b-cue in her garden, by her pool, I was going to be staying there for the summer because I have nowhere else to stay.

"Anyway we had both just jumped into the pool when all of these…Death Eaters arrived and started throwing killing curses everywhere, they were being led by Bellatrix Lestrange, I would know that evil cow's voice anywhere." Susan had started crying again so Harry cuddled her to him but she continued. "Everyone else had been killed so I grabbed Lavender and activated my Portkey, the rest you know, because we landed here."

Realising that Voldemort was not there at least a dozen Order members left for the Browns house so the kitchen had cleared considerably.

"Winky has brought both of mistresses some clothes, me is putting them in Mr Harry Potter sirs bedroom with some tea for you each."

He thanked the little elf and said, "Let's go up and get you both dressed and then we will have lunch and tell you our story, ok?"

When he stood both Susan and Lavender looked at him with big round eyes and said, "Carry me please?"

The other three girls started giggling and soon the new two joined in, it was Hermione who said, "It is three flights of twenty-one stairs and carry both of you?" She rolled her eyes, "I love that boy and I am not going to let you kill him, the wizard world still needs him.

"Anyway you had both better come and read rule six of this notice."

From the dejected looks on their faces it was obvious that the pair had read rule six but then Lavender asked, "What's with this prison?"

"And was it rule two or three that sent Ron there?" Susan added.

Harry answered, "It was probably rule three but rule two would do it if he kept on shouting without being abusive, now if we go and get you both dressed we can all have some lunch then we will show you around."

It was six of them that made their way up the stairs to Harry's room, Luna had popped into the Weasley lounge to tell Molly that Ron had been incarcerated again and she would follow them up in a minute.

Lavender and Susan were just coming out of the bathroom when Luna arrived in Harry's bedroom and they joined the others taking various seats around the room. Harry was sat alone in one of the chairs and Hermione was laying on her stomach on his bed facing everyone.

Lavender looked around at everyone and said, "We have been talking and we know that we want to get rid of, _'be brave girl'_, Voldemort and the Death Eaters, we are fairly certain that Harry is heavily involved and we were thinking that the rest of you are as well. But what about Daphne? Thanks for carrying me by the way, she doesn't seem to fit in."

Daphne humorously faked tears, "Woe is me, just because my hair get wet ten minutes before any of you midgets know that it is raining, people think that I don't fit in." She became serious, "Actually Lavender, Voldemort had my parents murdered yesterday morning." She showed the pair Voldemort's letter.

"Oh my god!" said Lavender and she threw herself at the big girl and gave her a tight hug saying, "He's insane and it figures why you are here.

"Can we join?"

Susan was just sat there staring at Daphne in disbelief, the letter was hanging loosely between her fingers, however when Lavender asked to join them she started nodding.

Harry said, "Provisionally I will say yes but we must talk…"

Dobby appeared and said, "Mr Harry Potter sir it is you all lunch time."

OoOoO

All of the adults were elsewhere so it was only the six girls and Harry in the dining room and Luna asked Lavender, "What was it that happened between you and Ronald."

A slightly dizzy blond she might have been but at the moment Luna asked the question she looked livid, so Harry quickly put in, "We know that you can not be a strumpet, I certainly wouldn't believe it of you anyway, because it would take longer for the house to lock Ron away simply for shouting at you."

Shyly Susan said, "We both spent yesterday helping Hagrid with the unicorns and their foals so that sort of rules out any major misdemeanours on either of our part's." She was blushing profusely.

Lavender had reigned in her temper with the middle part of Harry's statement, so she answered, "It turned out that Ron only went out with me because he thought that I would take my underwear off for him." She could pass for a blond tomato, but all of the others were livid, "When he eventually stopped trying to be subtle and asked outright, I told him that, despite all of the rumours to the contrary, I was not that kind of girl. So he started shouting and being abusive to me and then he called me that name and finally he finished with me." She was now crying so Susan and Daphne who were either side of her started comforting her.

Through her whimpers she finished, "I had to look it up, I didn't know what it meant."

Luna said kindly, "Susan said earlier that today is your birthday, I promise that you will not be bothered by the idiot for the rest of the day, I have not yet decided about tomorrow. He has only had one meal since breakfast yesterday morning and the elves wouldn't let him stuff himself like a pig, they refused him a second helping of breakfast and the house stopped him taking any food from his mother or me."

With concern Harry asked, "So Lavender, do you feel up to having a little birthday party?"

There was a loud pop as three elves arrived, it appeared that Winky was the spokes-elf, "Miss Winky and her friends will make happy party for Miss Lavender, in Mr Harry Potter sir's lounge, please or dining room?"

Everybody was looking at Lavender, eventually she smiled, nodded her head and said, "Yes please, if Harry doesn't mind?"

"You will find," he started, trying to sound hard done by, "that this is only my house in name, in effect it is ruled by a female Mafia, who in their charitable wisdom, allow me to occasionally delude myself into thinking that I have some say in what goes on in it. Whereas actually I…" At this point he was grabbed and held by Daphne, _(This involves her holding his face between her boobs, she had quickly found that he did not try too hard to get away, being honest he didn't try to get away at all.) _whilst Hermione and Ginny started tickling him, he immediately submitted pleading temporary insanity, in fact Harry thought that his life at the moment was about as good as it could be.

"So we are having a party for Lavender in Harry's room this evening." Ginny was bubbling.

Luna went down stairs to talk to Ron and Harry said, "I will get out of your way because I know that you want to do some clothes shopping and this is the only room with a phone and it might be a good idea to have extensions in my two rooms, we will probably get to spend a lot of time in them."

Dobby disappeared with a pop and Harry could hear an argument coming from the cellar so he went in that direction, outside the jail Luna and Molly were arguing with each other and with Ron who was in his favourite cell.

"Silence!" Harry said forcefully and the three of them shut up, so he continued, "Right Luna what is the problem?"

Unusually she was agitated and not her normal serene self, "The red headed thicko, once again doesn't see what he has done wrong and Mrs Weasley believes whatever lies he has told her."

Molly started to react but Harry held his hand up to silence her and quietly said to her, "You have read the house rule book, explain to Ron what it has to say about 'the truth', also bear in mind that I am telling you that he was rude and abusive to Lavender. Also it was probably less than five minutes after she had witnessed her parents being murdered by Death Eaters.

"In addition, to save you putting yourself in a compromising position; I will tell the pair of you now that both of the new girls spent yesterday with Hagrid helping him with the unicorns and their foals, I don't need to tell you what that says about their chastity."

"Ronald," Mrs Weasley said with a look between anger and worry on her face, "the house's rules about the truth are quite strict, did you read the rule book I gave you to read when we first came here?"

"Yes but that's a load of old…" Ron started blustering but his mother cut him off.

"I do not know, neither at this moment do I particularly care what you may think that it might be 'an old load of,' but believe me they are absolutely serious. You can be ejected from the house for telling lies to the detriment of another occupant, and the knowledge of the Fidelius will be removed from your mind."

"Where will it eject me to?" Suddenly he wasn't sounding quite so cocky.

"Nobody knows," his mother told him, "but I can't imagine that it will be anywhere pleasant, after all it will be as a punishment and it was concocted by Sirius so it could be anywhere. Now Harry is obviously going to ask you some questions and you must be truthful, if you try any smart Alec answers or to hedge around the truth, goodness only knows what will happen to you."

Not messing around Harry asked bluntly, "Why did you start dating Lavender?"

Ron didn't want to answer, but he knew that the rules said that in the event of a non-answer the worst possible connotation would be put upon his silence and castigation would be metered accordingly. (Ron could vaguely remember reading it and not really understanding it all but at this moment he was pretty certain that whatever it ultimately meant it would not be very pleasant.) So, with his eyes closed and after taking a deep breath he said, "I thought that if I dated her she would sleep with me."

His eyes were closed with good reason, his mother looked horrified, but Harry wasn't finished with him, "So after dropping hints, to Hermione for weeks, about being invited to the 'Slug Club' party, when she eventually gave in you went off with Lavender to try to get laid?"

"Yes." Was the hardly audible reply.

"So what did you do when Lavender told you that she was not that kind of girl?" Harry wanted Molly to know the whole story.

"But everybody said that she was that kind of girl." Ron was trying to justify his actions but there was a 'BONG'.

Molly looked more worried, he was allowed one more 'bong' and next Ron would be gone, but Harry said, "Personally I have never heard anybody say that they have slept with Lavender, I have only ever heard them say that, 'everybody says she sleeps around'. So answer the question. What did you do when Lavender told you that she was not that kind of girl?"

"I was rude and abusive and I finished with her." His answer was very quiet.

"This is my last question for now." Harry said, "So what was your reason for acting the way you did in the hall earlier? All of the new girls here have been through a far worse time than you and if any more arrive you will be able to bet that they will have as well."

"There was no justification, I was just trying to cover my own arse." Ron answered very quietly.

"I don't know where your head's been off to recently mate, but I think that we would all quite like the old Ron back." Harry said kindly. "I'm going to let you think on it."

Luna drifted back up to the kitchen and Molly said, "Harry I owe you a big apology, for him and the Portkey, I will leave him here to stew, at least until the morning."

"Your request for my forgiveness is accepted on both counts, but it is Ginny who you really hurt and I don't think that she is ready to listen to you yet, maybe her father first in a couple of days time."

OoOoO

Molly led the way up and she went through the kitchen pausing only to kiss Lavender on the forehead and say that she was sorry for what Ron did, then she went to the Weasley lounge.

Harry was going to head upstairs as well but Luna said, "This lot have nearly finished so you might as well wait with me." She patted the seat next to her and when he sat down she whispered, "Thank you, I think that he needed that and Mrs Weasley definitely needed to hear it, it will take him a few days to get over it but I think that he will come around fairly soon and will be better for it.

"So did she apologise to you?"

"She did indeed," he answered, "and I made it clear that she owed Ginny a bigger one also I made it clear that Ginny would not be ready to hear it for at least a few days yet."

Quite loudly Lavender asked, "Do you think that being as it is my birthday and him buying me a great big wardrobe full of clothes it would be warranted for me to get really hot and steamy with Harry?"

He was getting ready to sprint to his study but with a lot of self-interest Hermione said, "Not really, he has bought all of us loads and loads of clothes, so we can't really count that, but I do think that he should kiss you on the cheek of course, all other forms of kissing being forbidden for fear of creating precedent."

Lavender had a big pretend pout, "Why do we have all of these stupid rules anyway?"

"You both want to join us," Harry started, "and provided you swear an oath not to talk to anyone outside the group about what goes on inside the group, everything will be fine. However before you get too excited you have four hundred pages of the most boring information imaginable to read through, twice, in the next couple of days and the best part is, you won't understand any of it."

Susan looked forlornly at Hermione who just nodded and said, "This stuff is drier than the Sahara desert, but it is about Occlumency and the teacher is coming in a couple of days so read it we all must."

With a cheeky grin Ginny said, "It's being so cheerful that keeps her going you know. Come on let's show them around the house, it's much better than reading that Occlumency book."

"Good afternoon Harry and girls," Professor McGonagall said walking into the kitchen, "I might have a little good news, your Occlumency teacher will not be here until Monday week so you have some more time to do your reading."

There was a collective sigh of relief and she continued, "But not such good news about your house Miss Brown, the only thing that survived was your school things which are still in the trunk that has not been opened since you returned from school. Being your Headmistress I shouldn't really add 'luckily'.

"Miss Bones, the same applies to you and your trunks have been put into your rooms here."

"Thank goodness," Susan said, "all of my papers and my vault keys are in the trunk. I had clothes already at Lavender's house, I have been staying there ever since the last of my family were murdered."

Lavender was quietly sobbing and was being comforted by Daphne but she managed to say, "I have my copy of the family vault key in my trunk and the original copies of my parents Wills, I suppose that the goblins should read them."

Minerva had sat down and she said kindly, "Do you know whether the goblins have copies of the Wills?"

"I think that they do, but what am I to do?" She was getting hysterical, "I have nowhere to live and I don't think that there is enough money in the family vault to rebuild the house."

"Lavender! Stop being foolish." Harry said firmly, "You can live here as long as you need to, why do you think that you were brought here? Or would you prefer me to rebuild your house and send you to live there on your own? Susan can stay as well if she wants to."

Both girls were looking at him with big wonder-filled eyes and Susan said, "I want to snog him to death. Sod the rules."

"Not allowed." Now it was Daphne, "He is doing the same for me and he had never even spoken to me until yesterday and if I am not allowed to donate my boobs to the keep Harry happy fund, then you can't snog him to death." Hermione realised that Daphne was following her lead and was protecting Harry.

The Headmistress said with a slight smile, "Girls, behave yourselves, you know that the house will lock you up if you don't conduct yourself within the rules."

"Would that be with or without Harry?" Ginny asked cheekily.

Luna was polishing her nails on her chest as she added, "Probably without, so unless you actually want to visit Ron who is already down there, be good."

"Look I have to leave now," Minerva said whilst standing, "as always I have a lot to do but I will check with Gringotts for both of you girls and Harry, you can tell them whatsoever you think is necessary." With a slight crack she left.

"It's so not fair," Lavender complained, "I have wanted to snog him for years, I want to know what it is like, have any of you kissed him?"

"I do believe that I am the only one." Ginny said smugly.

There were signs of resentment from some of the other girls until Harry said, "I hate to spoil it for you Ginny, but last Christmas I kissed Hermione under the mistletoe."

Without his permission Hermione wouldn't have told anyone, but Harry had acknowledged it so she added, "And I would have to confess that it was wonderful." The normally serious bushy haired girl said dreamily.

The general consensus around the table was why didn't Hermione stick with Harry, she answered with him nodding in agreement that Ron was being a total prat so they decided that it would be for the best to pretend that it never happened.

"Enough of this," Harry said, "let's show these girls the house."

OoOoO

Their tour of the house had taken them the rest of the afternoon; Harry's lounge was for the moment complete, the soft sofas and chairs were pale tangerine and the wooden furniture was pale teak. Harry noticed that the telephone extension he had suggested had already been installed and he had no doubt that if he checked in his bedroom he would also find one there.

Both of the new girls had loved their rooms and Lavender had insisted on going through all of her new clothes. It had only been when everyone else threatened to leave her and carry on with the tour without her that had convinced her to leave the fashion show until later.

House elves trying to give subtle hints can sometimes be disastrous, as Harry could vouch for in his second year, but in this case they all were aware of their inappropriate guile, the elves simply wanted them to dress smartly for Lavenders party.

It transpired that Hermione's parents had successfully spent the day setting up two networked computers; the result was that each of the machines had a high-speed Internet connection, one was in their lounge and the other in the Muggle library.

Hermione had stalled on having a computer in her room; she wanted Harry to have one in his room as an excuse for her to spend more time in there. Her desire for the limitless source of information and her lack of patience eventually made her give up on Harry and ask her father to go ahead and install one in her room. Then, ten minuets later, much to her annoyance Harry asked Leo if he could put one into his and each of the girl's rooms.

Lavender had been showing remarkable resilience considering she had lost her parents that morning and they had a sumptuous banquette in the dining room followed by some fun and games in Harry's lounge. The games were monitored closely by Daphne and Hermione, whose intervention prevented it from simply degenerating into a ravish Harry session.

A lot of stories were told by the girls mostly of their earlier childhood, the highlight of the evening however was Tonks telling the tale of his naked arrival in the hall, now all of the girls were extremely jealous of Tonks.

At one stage Hermione managed to get him on his own and quietly asked, "Why did you tell everyone that we had kissed?"

When she finally managed to convince him that she wasn't mad at him for telling everyone, he said, "I thought that the others were going to hex Ginny and she would spend her time winding them up about being the only one to have kissed me, so by telling our story it stopped both things."

She kissed him gently on the cheek and told him that she was proud of him and that she wouldn't mind repeating the Christmas episode. His reply was to assure her that it was something he really wanted to do as well, but they would have to wait until after Voldemort.

Hermione was very happy and appreciated the logic of his reply, but unusually in this case she wanted logic to go to blazes so that she could start on him instantly, if not sooner.

The kiss had not gone unnoticed and they were soon subjected to an inquisition from the other girls. Hermione simply told them that earlier he had done something to make her proud of him and she had been doing something similar for the last six years whenever he made her proud of him and she didn't intend stopping now.

True to his word Remus had spent most of the evening first manoeuvring and then helping the Weasleys to move into the apartment above the mews, actually the elves were happy to do most of the work.

It was when Mrs Weasley realised Ron would also be with her and that she could do her own cooking and cleaning if she wanted to, the Weasley matriarch quickly agreed. Therefore, much to his relief, Ron had escaped his confinement and been fed a lot sooner that he had expected, however he still had his bat bogies to remind him of past indiscretions. More to the point he had his mother to contend with and she was far from being enamoured with his actions, this she went to some pains to impress upon him, in great detail, almost continuously.

When Remus eventually reached the party he had been presented with a bottle of twenty-five year old Firewhisky for which he was extremely grateful. He told the girls of some changes, Ginny had been moved across into Ron's old room, to everybody's relief it had been redecorated, so she was now sharing a bathroom with Luna, her long time friend. Daphne also had her wish and she moved into Ginny's old room consequently she was sharing her bathroom with Hermione who she was rapidly becoming great friends with.

The evening had been a huge success and it was now time for bed, Lavender had received small presents from each of them the most expensive being a Cartier watch from Harry. Effectively Harry had paid for all of the gifts but as he told all of the girls, everyone says that it's the thought that counts and he would never of thought of most of the gifts that Lavender received.

Girls were irrational? Who in their right mind would go into raptures over a silly manicure set? A broom servicing kit he could understand, but a manicure set?

He fell asleep with fond memories of being held by Daphne whilst Hermione and Ginny tickled him.

OoOoO

**Authors Notes; **The last six chapters have covered six days and averaged over six thousand eight hundred words each, at this rate I will write three hundred and fifty chapters and two and a quarter million words. I just wish that I had learned to type, that is an awful lot with two fingers.

When all of the girls are assembled I anticipate we will have more day per chapter and skip some days altogether, still maybe twenty or thirty chapters.

**TTFN UdderPD **


	8. Chapter 8 Monozygotic Girls

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book.

**Authors Note: **I do not normally reply to reviews but to Jarbarber69 I would like to say that; 'I wish I knew'.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Chapter 08 Monozygotic Girls. **

**Sybil's Muse:** She had discussed the whole thing with Minerva and they had come to the conclusion that she had done about as much in the way of upsetting Voldemort as she could, because she could only see one piece of slight relief in the immediate future. Although a high percentage of the families who were attacked would come to live in the castle the destruction of property would be fairly widespread.

So she stopped her post midnight calls.

_Saturday 28th June 1997 _

Quite unexpectedly Voldemort was fuming. He had been up all night waiting for that silly bat to call and not a murmur, not a peep.

How inconsiderate, however he was not going to let it bother him he was simply going to ignore her.

"Wormtail"…**_"Crucio."_**

See, it didn't bother him at all.

OoOoO

Exercising that morning had been good and bad, good in as much as five very attractive girls showing off their bits by bending, stretching and bouncing them at him was a lot better than plain good, great or maybe wonderful would be better adjectives.

The bad bit wasn't really bad it was just that they only had four pieces of equipment and currently there were six of them and they really needed more, so they brought out the catalogues and added another two different stations. That was still only six and the thought was that there was going to be eight of them, which when Ron and Luna joined them would become ten, so they tripled each station, giving them eighteen positions to work out, it should alleviate most arguments.

There was still enough space.

Breakfast had passed for something that was beginning to be normal in Harry's house, that is to say that six girls were all talking at nearly the same time and Harry was talking quietly to Remus.

Then Harry said, "Luna?" It was as if someone had pulled the plug on an audio system, silence.

"What can I do for you Harry?" she answered quietly.

"I was wondering," he said, "if you would like to run the DA next year with Ron? I don't think that I will have time to do it and it needs to be done."

"Personally I would love to do it and I would be honoured but I cannot speak for the demented carrot."

It took a second for everyone to realise what she had said, but as soon as they did there were great hoots of laughter, none louder than Luna's.

Shortly after Luna had left, with some defence books so she could talk to Ron and Remus went to help Dan with the cable installation for their rapidly expanding computer network. When Remus had asked him Dan had told him that apart from Hermione it would most likely be only Harry who would be able to switch on his computer, let alone use it.

OoOoO

Ron had made what he thought was an extraordinary discovery, if he was doing something that Hermione, or maybe even Harry thought was beneficial, then his bat bogies stopped. Luna had called very early for him to come for some exercise before the others were down in the gym, he hadn't noticed it at the time, but whilst he was working out they stopped, then afterwards whilst he had showered they did not immediately restart again. But as soon as he picked up his copy of 'Which Broomstick' they started attacking him again and they didn't let up all through breakfast, well they did at first but when he had eaten enough for a small pigeon they started again. Actually Ron had eaten as much as Harry, or any of his other school friends, would have had for breakfast if they were hungry.

Luna had come over after breakfast with some advanced defence books and she had told him that Harry had wondered if the pair of them would like to run the DA during the next school year. His first reaction had nearly been to ask if Harry was getting too lazy to do it, however as soon as he thought about it he knew that one thing Harry was never lazy about was defence; he must have more important things to do.

Both of them had been reading for about an hour when Ron decided that he deserved a rest, so he slipped his copy of 'Which Broomstick' inside his defence book and almost immediately Luna asked loudly, "What are you reading, Ronald?"

"My defence book." He pleaded feigning innocence.

"If you were reading the defence book then the bat bogies wouldn't have just restarted." She jumped to her feet and picked up his and the other books dropping his magazine on the floor, she then continued, "If you are determined to spend you life as a total waste of space and food carry on…without me!" She stalked out of the flat leaving him alone with his mother.

This was his epiphany.

It was fortunate that all of the occupants of the house were either in the front rooms or up on the fourth floor practicing their magic, none of them heard the tirade his mother once again visited upon her youngest son.

It is interesting to note at this point that had she administered the same lecture whilst in the house it would not even have considered locking her away, because he deserved it.

OoOoO

Hermione had just herded them all up to the forth floor so they could practice defence when the Headmistress arrived to give them a proposition, "I believe that I am talking to five who would be Harry's girls and the boy himself?" Minerva was smiling so Harry did not take offence at her calling him a boy and all of the girls were nodding. "I was wondering if you would all like to become Animagi?"

All six of them said that they would so she began to give them a small lecture, "With application, almost anybody can become an Animagus animal and in rare cases some people can become more than one, there was one witch three hundred years ago who could become four different animals. If you are restricted to one form then the most prudent thing is to be a domestic pet, a normal sized dog or a domestic cat because really exotic animals are not very practical. Even Sirius' Animagus big black dog couldn't amble inconspicuously through Hogsmeade; if it had been half the size nobody would ever have noticed him.

"What you will be doing will be illegal, you are supposed to apply for permission prior to the commencement of your training, but there are too many leaks in the Ministry for you to risk that. If this is to do you the maximum good the fewer people to know about it the better, so the safest thing is to only ever talk amongst yourselves, even Mr Weasley will be resentful if he were to find out that Miss Lovegood knew about it before he did.

"This is quite a rare book." She showed it to them and it looked to be about three hundred pages, "Reading the first two chapters twice will do you more good than reading the whole book and unlike your Occlumency text you will think that you understand what you are reading. It is deliberately written to mislead, which is why the Marauders took so long to learn to transform, we will start the tests and the practical when your numbers are complete.

"I cannot stress enough that you are only going to set yourself back if you try to do any of the practical on your own."

Professor Flitwick came in and said, "About a dozen children have just arrived in Hogwarts with the Patil sisters, I do not know about all of the others but the twins parents are dead, there was an attack in Diagon Alley and about fifteen of ours have gone there." He noticed the look on Harry's face and added, "The attack was being led by Bellatrix Lestrange, again."

"I have to return to the school immediately," the Headmistress continued indicating Harry and Hermione, "do both of you have your Portkey's on you?"

When they confirmed that they had Lavender said, "Should I come for Parvati?"

"And Padma is one of my best friends." Added Daphne.

Professor Flitwick offered them his Portkey and the six of them arrived in Hogwarts entrance hall; they could hear crying coming from the Great Hall and so that is where they all went. There were a dozen panicking youngsters who were being comforted by the five Creeveys and the Patil twins who themselves looked like they needed comforting.

Lavender and Daphne immediately went to the twins and started comforting them; Hermione and Harry went to help with the other slightly younger children. There were five girls who had been fourth and fifth years, they suddenly seemed to forget that they were panicking about their parents and latched on to Harry, supposedly for comfort; the other youngsters were evenly spread between Hermione and Colin's family.

Two of the fifth year girls had Harry in a death grip as the sound of people arriving came from outside the hall and very quickly a large group of parents came into the Great Hall.

All in all it was not as bad as it might have been as only two other people had died besides Mr and Mrs Patil, also eight of the Death Eaters were in custody.

Most of the youngsters immediately went to find their parents, however the two girls who had a tight hold of Harry were trying, unsuccessfully, to hide behind him and when their families arrived the girls had to be pried, complaining, off of him. It was fairly evident however that most of the adults were nearly as much in awe of the-boy-who-lived as the girls who had had a grip on him were.

Eventually Hermione and Harry reached Padma and Parvati, he immediately hugged the girls who were not slow in hugging him back and then not letting go. It was soon evident that the twins had been assured that they would not have to go home alone and that they could come to stay with all of them if that was what they wanted to do.

Seeing that Harry was occupied the Headmistress said to Hermione, "Miss Granger, if you all go back home now, we will come later and help to tidy up the twins affairs."

Hermione passed the Headmistresses request on to the others, so she and Harry used their Portkeys to transport the six of them back to twelve Grimmauld Place.

OoOoO

Winky had seen who had arrived and disappeared as Susan and Ginny came up from the kitchen to join them.

It proved to be quite difficult to prise the twins off of Harry, but eventually they succeeded enough for them all to make their way upstairs towards Harry's room.

Diverting their trip to Harry's bedroom to look at the first floor the twins were shown the study and the library, both of which Padma was impressed with. The others noted that four computers had been added to the study in addition to a lot of the shelves having been filled with books and they supposed that the latter fact had resulted in the library now being tidy. Harry tried to skip it but Parvati thinking that she was missing something insisted upon looking into the master's study and regretted it; she felt sick for the next ten minutes.

Unsurprisingly both of the twins loved Harry's lounge and they took a few minutes trying some of the seating and just looking out of the window at the Muggle park.

Eventually they were on their way upstairs, Padma asked, "So whose house is this?"

"It's Harry's," Susan answered cheerfully.

"How many bedrooms does it have?" this was Parvati.

"Four like this." Hermione told them, they had reached the second floor and she showed them the Weasleys old bedroom.

"And eight like this." Daphne told them, leading the twins through what were now her and Hermione's rooms, "These are Hermione's and mine."

"But there are only two like this," said Harry leading them into his room.

"The bed is big enough for the three of us Harry, or will we be forced to have our own rooms?" the twins asked together and then everybody except Harry giggled.

Looking a bit confused Harry said, "You will have your own rooms, if you want them, or you can share with each other." He continued whilst pointing, "That is the dressing room but you would be better off using the bathroom to change, Winky has bought you some clothes they are similar to what the other girls are wearing."

When they came out of the bathroom the twins asked why they couldn't use the dressing room; Daphne explained about Myrtle also telling them that she had been called an ugly hill giant, so the twins decided to see for themselves.

The pair went into the dressing room together, "Who are you?" Myrtle screamed.

"We are two of Harry's girls." Padma answered primly.

"But you're doppelgangers, monozygotic girls and that's just not fair, you leave my Harry alone you…you cocottes, you scarlet women, you..." The girls left the dressing room and closed the door behind them but they were giggling.

Having looked it up they discovered that monozygotic meant twins derived from a single ovum, ergo identical and a cocotte was an old French word for a fashionable prostitute they were quite pleased, at least it was better than being called a hill giant.

So with a smirk Parvati said, "Well at least she didn't call us hill giants."

Harry answered with a big smile, "If hill giant women all looked like Daphne there would be no animosity between them and wizards."

Hermione was proud of him, he had stalled a possible confrontation and she was going to give him one of her kisses but she had reckoned without Daphne's quick thinking. The tall girl was also very astute and realised just what he had done on her behalf and so she quickly moved to reward him, she realised that if she used her greatest weapons she would likely get herself into trouble.

So she kissed him on the cheek and simply said, "Thank you Harry, that was very sweet of you."

Lavender was whispering to Parvati and it appeared that the very pretty dark skinned girl was not too enamoured with what she was hearing, but it was all put on hold because Dobby arrived and told them that it was time for lunch.

The first thing that Lavender did when they all arrived at the kitchen was show the twins the list of rules on the wall, the two new girls were no more enamoured with them than any of the others had been.

It was as though the elves had realised what was going to happen so for lunch they were having sandwiches. At one end of the table was Harry with Ginny, Luna Daphne and Susan; this group was talking normally. The other end of the table had the telephone with Hermione, Winky, Lavender, Parvati and Padma; this was obviously the end for squealing and giggling, because they were buying Muggle clothes.

Harry thought that as death wishes go there could be a lot worse ways to die so he said, "What's all of the noise about, they are only a few stupid clothes?"

The result was not the silence of the other morning when he had spoken to Luna, this carried silence into a whole new dimension only normally experienced by the completely outcast. For a few minuets he thought that Parvati and Lavender were completely broken; but they started spluttering the words 'stupid' and 'clothes' over and over with total disbelief.

And then it started.

Seven of them, at the same time, with detailed explanations of just why clothes were very important and most definitely not stupid.

Luna was just sat there with a small smile on her face; it became a little wider when he made his next statement, "And I suppose that you are going to try to tell me that there is some deep cosmic significance in buying shoes as well."

The hubbub was building to a crescendo when, "Hang on!" Hermione said loudly, "I know you too well Potter, you're just trying to wind us all up."

"Your absolutely no fun at all Hermione Granger." Luna said sulkily, "He had just made you all nearly ready to attack him and you went and spoiled it all, I wanted to see just what he was going to do to keep himself alive."

The room gradually settled down with considerably less noise from the far end of the table and Daphne asked, "So what were you going to do to keep alive?"

Luna was waiting for this answer, "I wasn't going to do anything." He said innocently.

This was another kind of silence, this was a lead weighted groaning silence that was eventually broken by Hermione repeatedly banging her head on the table saying, "What have I done, he was giving us an opportunity to have our wicked way with him and I blew it."

Needless to say they were all devastated, but it would take Hermione longer to forgive herself than it would any of the others to forgive her.

Harry smiled then Luna started laughing and Harry soon joined her.

Dejectedly Hermione asked, "Why did you do that to us Harry?"

Suddenly he looked sad and gloomy, looking her in the eyes he said sympathetically, "Because this afternoon everything starts to become serious, it is time for decisions based on the facts as you and I know them and therefore they must all learn what you already know."

She had started to cry softly so he moved quickly to her to comfort her and quietly she said, "Goodbye childhood."

Luna stood and said, "I think that I should try Ron with the defence books again." She picked up the books from the dresser where she had left them and headed, once more, in the direction of the mews.

OoOoO

Grim, was the best word to describe the mood at the dinner table that evening, they had spent the afternoon in the study and Harry had talked. The first thing he did was impress on them the secrecy of what he was about to tell them and that the memory would be Oblivated if they didn't want to continue with him.

Then he told them the facts as he knew them from Godric's Hollow and he continued on through his childhood until his eleventh birthday when he discovered that he was a wizard. Then it became a year-by-year account of his time in Hogwarts, in this he was aided by Hermione for some of it and a little of the second year by Ginny, this was interspersed by his time during the summer holidays.

His account of the Triwizard Tournament had first Daphne in tears because she had worn a 'Potter Stinks' badge but it was the telling of the cold-blooded murder of Cedric Diggory that had all six girls who had not heard it before crying. Voldemort's resurrection the subsequent duelling and Harry's eventual return to Hogwarts had them gawping at him in amazement.

Interlaced with it all was the ever-increasing negative involvement of the Ministry of Magic and the rearguard action being fought by the Order of the Phoenix.

But it wasn't until he reached sixth year that they began to more fully understand what it was they were undertaking, with his story of Voldemort's split soul and the hidden Horcruxes which it would be their quest to find.

Eventually he wound by up saying, "I have given you all a lot of information and you must each decide, for yourselves if you wish to continue with me down the road that will eventually lead to Voldemort. I will not lie to you it will be dangerous. If we all get out of this alive and in one piece it will be a miracle. However for my part I will be honoured if you all come with me."

Daphne, Hermione, Ginny and surprisingly Susan had told him immediately that they were with him until the end, the other three looked confused. He told them that he understood that it was a lot of new information he had just given them, he would sit with them all in his lounge after dinner and answer any of their questions he could then.

Padma had been listening carefully to his tale that included with-held information and no information so she asked, "When you say that you will answer any questions that you can, does that mean that you will be editing the information you will be passing on to us?"

He gave a small laugh, "Not at all, I have had enough of that myself." He answered, "If I know the answer I will give it to you, also I will give you my best guess if that is what you want." He had seen the look on Lavender's face so he continued, "But I reserve the right to withhold the information Lavender was trying to extract from Tonks last night, the size of my naughty bits is not relevant to the disposing of Voldemort."

Padma gave Lavender what could only be described as 'a look,' in this she was not alone because the same expression was also coming from Daphne and Hermione. However it should also be noted that the same disappointed look was evident on Parvati and Ginny's faces as well and at least Lavender had the decency to blush.

It had been at this point that Dobby had called them down for dinner.

When they had arrived in the kitchen the Headmistress met them and whilst they were all having dinner she told them of her afternoon. "I have visited your home and your uncle demanded that you return there immediately. Apparently he wants to take you to India so that he can arrange a good wedding for you." Professor McGonagall looked affronted, "I told him bluntly that the you are of age and you will decide for yourselves if and who you will marry.

"I'm sorry but I didn't completely trust your uncle so from your home I went straight to Gringotts and made sure that their estates division were aware of your parents demise.

"They were. Apparently your mother hadn't trusted her brother in law either, she had placed an overriding codicil on both of their Will's, it automatically activated when the second of them died before the will of the first had been read.

"So now it is not possible for anyone other than you two, who are the main beneficiaries of your mother's will, to remove anything from the house until the her Will has been read, that will happen tomorrow at ten in the morning. By the way, Winky has moved a lot of your clothes and things to your rooms here, if you decide not to stay with the group here your things can easily be moved back to your family home.

"Now because your father died a minute before your mother his Will becomes almost moot, the first thing it says that in the event of his death everything passes to your mother. He died first so the first wish of your father came into effect, ergo everything became your mothers at that moment and from then onwards only her Will is of any importance.

"I do not know much more than that, the only thing that the goblins would say was that your parents had very different views on your uncles future involvement in your lives. Consequently, when your mothers Will is read tomorrow, they believe that your uncle will not be very happy, the goblins were talking gobbledegook so I am not too sure but I think that they said that he will only have enough money to get back to India."

The rest of the girls had been comforting the twins whilst their Headmistress had been talking and now that she had finished it was quiet for a few minutes, eventually Padma said, "Will you come with us please Harry?"

He hesitated for a moment and said, "I don't think that it would be too good an idea for me to come with you, seeing me with the pair of you would probably antagonise your uncle, but I don't think that you should go alone. Lavender and Daphne should go with you as your friends and Hermione should be with you to get you out of there at the first sign of trouble. From what I hear your uncle would be extremely foolish to start any trouble inside Gringotts, but you never know and it is better to be safe than sorry. Anyway straight home after the reading, there will be plenty of time for other things later, I will not be happy until you all get back here safely."

"Everything that you said is true Harry," Minerva said, "I shall be there in my capacity as your Headmistress and as we will be inside Gringotts, you will not have to worry about my safety Harry."

Daphne giggled and she immediately had to explain about setting the Fidelius on her house and then she asked Harry, "What did you mean when you said, 'dead is dead', to the Headmistress the other day?"

"Quite simply, there is no way to bring the dead back to life, so dead is dead' forever. No doubt some of the gods could bring people back to life but we don't have a direct line to any gods. In the strict sense of the word Voldemort is no longer human and there is certainly no longer any of Salazar Slytherin's blood in his veins. His apparent body is a bunch of magic assembled around a fragment of his soul, his Muggle father's bone, Peter Pettigrew's flesh and some of my blood, all mixed together in a pot, with some added black magic. It only has the appearance of being alive and most certainly it is something that is not human."

"What I see as our first task," Hermione said, "is to get ourselves trained well enough to get through his defensive cordon of Death Eaters, they will be his best…just imagine half a dozen Bellatrix Lestrange's. Yuk!"

"I don't want to make you complacent," the Headmistress said, "but I don't think that it will be quite that bad. Even at school she was deranged, but now she is totally evil and insane, pain and killing is all she ever thinks about, none of the others come up to her.

"Now I must be going, I will be here with a Portkey for the five of you at nine thirty in the morning, goodnight everybody."

The eight of them said goodnight to Professor McGonagall and they all moved up to Harry's lounge.

OoOoO

It turned out that there were not very many questions only a few clarifications, some explanations about the abilities of Phoenix's. Also the Order of the same name, of which the house they were in was the Headquarters and the three girls soon declared that they would join Harry.

Harry told the girls that as far as he could remember he had seven other houses scattered around the world as well as an island in the South Pacific complete with palm trees and hula girls.

It was a laughing Hermione who started it, "There…had…better…not…be…any…hula…girls." She said whilst she was emphasising each word with a blow to some part of his body from her cushion and it did not take very long for the other six to join in.

When he eventually escaped he said, "How do you know that there are no hula girls? I have decided to adopt Luna's philosophy, so until someone proves to me that they don't exist, as far as I am concerned, there are hula girls. So there."

"Why do you want hula girls?" asked Daphne with a huge pretend pout, "I wouldn't mind dancing for you in nothing but a grass skirt. I would leave the skirt off as well if it was what you wanted."

Harry turned red, but it was nothing to the shade he adopted when the other six girls assured him that Daphne wouldn't be alone hula dancing, or doing anything else alone with him for that matter.

Breaking the mood momentarily Parvati said, "Hunting for Horcruxes, I can live with. Killing Voldemort, I would sooner live without but you can't have everything. However I refuse to do it in a plain white T-shirt, we must do something to make them a bit more personal."

"We need to put something like, 'Potter's Princesses', on the back." Susan said shyly.

All of the girls thought that Susan's was a great idea so then they had a debate, but they couldn't come up with anything better so they charmed 'Potter's Princess' onto the back of each of their white T-shirts in bold red and gold letters.

Then Daphne decided that she wanted, 'Property of Harry Potter', emblazoned across her boobs. Hermione resolved that, 'Harry's Girl', would look good on the front of hers and Susan went for, 'I'm just wild about Harry', so then Lavender settled for 'Whatever Harry wants Harry gets'. Padma and Parvati decided to make people think a little because they opted for, 'Harry's Aquarius', and 'Harry's Pisces', respectively, one of them having been born a hour before the end of one star sign the other an hour into the next. Ginny had never been one to duck a fight but it was her, 'Harry really knows what he is doing with his broomstick', which they all thought was the most likely to cause a riot with both Ron and her mother.

It had just been decided by a majority of seven to one, there are no prizes for guessing who the odd one was, that Harry was having 'Harry' on the front and Potter on the back of his T-shirt when Luna came in and declared that she wanted something similar on her shirt.

There was a long debate and eventually they settled for, Potter's Princess First Reserve', on the back with, 'Under Training', across her nearly flat chest. She loved the double-entendre and she declared that Ron could like it or do the other. As Luna skipped happily off to bed they were all pretty certain that they knew what 'the other' was.

Just to cheer everybody up before bed Hermione said, "Well for the new girls we have some good news and some bad news, which do you want first?"

After a debate they decided that they would have the bad news first, so Hermione told them that they had just over a week to read three chapters of the most boring Occlumency book imaginable. So of course they asked what the good news was, so she told them that they only had to read two chapters of the Animagus Transformation book and apparently it was quite interesting. For passing on this priceless gem of supposedly good news, she was not surprised to receive four flying cushions, a sign from Ginny that would have given her mother a fit and several raspberries.

It was time for bed and the events of the last few days were catching up on several of the girls and they didn't want to go to bed, they didn't want to be without other people around them.

So Hermione said, "All of you girls go and get ready for bed and then come to my room with your pillows."

Everybody said goodnight to Harry and then the girls went off to their rooms to change for the night.

OoOoO

He had only been in bed for two minutes when his bedroom door opened and seven girls trooped in, only Hermione wasn't carrying her pillow, she was determined to use one of his.

Harry looked at them and simply asked, "Yes?"

"We decided that you would be lonely if you were all alone in this great big bed." Daphne told him.

Hermione however, wasn't waiting around for the others and had already climbed into the bed beside him, "And so we all decided to keep you company."

His bed might be considered huge at ten foot square but with the seven girls in it with him it became somewhat cosy, to say the least, actually delightfully cosy would be a much better way to put it.

OoOoO

**Authors Note**, I am sorry that this is a day late but real life has become chaotic and I will get the next chapter out as soon as I can. No promises. **PLEASE REVIEW**.


	9. Chapter 9 Fleur

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself the last book.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Authors Note: **First an apology for having taken so long to produce this chapter; the main culprits have been real life coupled with a lack of original ideas.

In this chapter the structure changes about a third of the way through, it goes from being one chapter per day to only covering the major points as it moves towards the end of the summer holidays. This effectively by-passes a lot of events that other stories have done to death, but still allows it to cover all of the points I wanted it to.

So I ask you to read it and I hope that you all enjoy it.

**Chapter 09 Fleur.**

**_Sunday 29__th__ June 1997 _**

It would not necessarily be true to say that Harry had had his best night's sleep ever, after all he could not remember just how 'good' or otherwise every other night's sleep had been. However it would be true to say that he had spent his best night in bed ever and in all honesty nothing untoward had happened.

Hermione had stuck to his right hand side all night, resisting all efforts aimed at persuading her to share, so the other girls had sort of taken turns at sharing his left hand side.

Daphne was the first to give up all ideas of taking turns sharing him, she moved herself across the top of the bed and replaced his pillow with her major assets and they were both very happy with this arrangement.

It turned out that both Susan and Parvati had a thing about feet so they were blissful, each of them cuddling one of his feet to their chest, happiness once again.

The other three were quite at ease with taking turns cuddling his other side, contentment all around.

But, as they say, 'all good things have to come to an end' so come seven o'clock they all had to get up and get ready for the day, the morning of which promised to be eventful, to say the least.

Providence was on their side in that the princesses were extremely lucky that nobody saw the seven of them trooping out of Harry's bedroom, six of them carrying their pillows, as previously reported Hermione hadn't brought hers.

OoOoO

Professor McGonagall and the five girls arrived in the reception area of Gringotts Bank at exactly nine thirty; by something akin to a miracle both Parvati and Lavender had been ready early. The five Potter's Princesses were all wearing matching very light silver, formal robes, Winky had been efficient enough to ensure that they all matched and besides looking gorgeous they all looked very smart.

The group were guided by one of the security goblins to a medium sized conference room where the goblin directed them to the right hand side of the rectangular table and then the guard waited in a corner.

Sitting alone at the left hand side of the table was the twin's uncle Agnok who seemed to be in a foul mood and never said a word to any of them.

Within a minute Fleur Delacour entered with another goblin guard and greeted all of those present and then, in perfect English said, "We are here for the reading of the Wills of Adnan and Pinkie Patil."

She opened a file and began, "It has been confirmed that Adnan Patil died prior to his wife so I will first read the relevant portion of his testament. It is quite simple it states, 'In the event of my death occurring prior to my wife's all of my worldly goods shall pass to my wife Pinkie Patil'.

"From this we conclude that upon his death all of Mr Patil's property passed to his wife and now the only Will to concern us is that of Mrs Pinkie Patil whose Will also has the same, now irrelevant, clause leaving everything to her husband. However her Will is unusual in that it has two first pages one to be used if her brother-in-law attends the Will reading alone the other if he brings his wife with him, as we can all see he is alone so we will use that first page.

"It states; 'To Agnok Patil, my obnoxious, self centred, pig of a brother-in-law I leave fifty Galleons, which is the international Floo tariff to his home in India and I evoke _'Persona Fidelius'_ on my home and children. My brother-in-law is to have nothing whatsoever to do with the future upbringing of my daughters Padma and Parvati, all he would do is sell them to the highest bidder and pocket the proceeds.

"An explanation to my daughters 'Persona Fidelius' will stop your uncle from finding you or our home again and I trust that he will use his fifty Galleons to return his insufferable self to India.

"It carries on," Fleur continued, "Mr Agnok Patil's part in this Will reading is now complete and I suggest that he should be removed from the room."

Needless to say, the twins uncle became even more annoyed, he started to draw his wand and was simultaneously hit by five stunning spells, they came from Hermione, Lavender, Fleur and both of the guards. Fleur tossed a bag onto the table and said, "There is his fifty Galleons, take him to the International Floo terminal, he must decide for himself if he wishes to return to India."

One of the guards put the bag into his pocket and they both picked up the stunned body and carried the twins' uncle out of the room; it was fairly obvious that the Goblins had been expecting trouble from the twins' uncle.

Both Padma and Parvati seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as Fleur smiled and continued, "This Will is a bit convoluted, in that it skips about depending upon the circumstances and because your uncle has now left us we can continue from near the end.

"All of my money and property is to be divided equally between my two daughters and to them I say, do not listen to anybody trying to persuade you to do things, just follow your hearts. However I would ask you to offer your aunt Ramilla sanctuary in what is now your house.

You will have to explain to her what has happened to your uncle. I very much doubt that she will want to join him but in the unlikely event that she does I would like you to ensure that she has everything she requires."

Fleur looked at the twins and asked, "Do you have any questions?"

Fleur closed her file as Parvati asked, "Approximately how much money do we have?"

"In cash a little over one hundred and seventy thousand Galleons each." Fleur replied, "You each also have nearly half a million Galleons in investments, which will provide each of you with an income of approximately one-thousand Galleons a week and of course the house that you are sharing. If you ask to see the Investment Goblins they will give you some idea of how to organise your investments.

"Is there anything else?"

When the twins indicated that there was nothing more Fleur said, "Good morning Hermione, I was surprised to see you here."

"I was surprised to see you here as well and your English has improved a lot, congratulations." The bushy haired girl replied and with a wide smile continued, "How are your wedding plans now?"

"We have decided that we will be married at my home near Lascaux in the Dordogne, you of course are still invited. A few days ago Bill told me about your house, so where are you living now?"

"The five of us are living at Headquarters with Harry, Luna Lovegood, Susan Bones and four of the Weasleys. It's lunchtime why don't you come to lunch with us? They will start to worry if we are not home soon."

Fleur smiled, "I will find Bill, you won't mind if he comes as well, will you?"

When Hermione had told her that of course they wouldn't mind Fleur disappeared out of the door through which she had entered and Daphne asked, "Are you sure that Harry won't mind you bringing people home for lunch?"

Professor McGonagall answered, "Fleur was a Triwizard champion with Harry and Bill is Ron's brother; also they are both members of the Order of the Phoenix, ergo Harry knows both of them very well, so it will not be a problem."

"Except for maybe Ron." Hermione said with a cheeky smile, "Bill is his eldest brother and after Harry has spoken with him it is possible that his mother will receive a bit of a lecture as well."

"Bill was livid," the Headmistress said, "because his mother would not take a Portkey as a safety measure against an attack by Voldemort. Harry had predicted, near enough exactly, when it would take place also who would be there and in the end Ginny had to face down Voldemort to save her mother and father. To say the least, Harry was not best pleased either."

Fleur came back with Bill and after being introduced to everyone he said, "We will have to go to the Apparation point."

Hermione responded, "Let's try this first, all hold on to me." When they all had hold she continued, "Hermione James." Eight of them arrived in the hallway of number twelve.

Within half a minute Susan, Ginny and Harry were there to greet the returnees who had brought Bill and Fleur, after Harry had welcomed his girls back with a hug, he and Bill disappeared into what had been the Weasleys lounge talking quietly.

Ten minutes later Bill went storming out to the mews.

All things considered lunch was an enjoyable meal for those who had eaten in the house; their number included Luna, who Bill had sent back into the house before he started on his mother and brother.

OoOoO

Harry and his princesses had spent the afternoon in the training room followed by an evening being bored silly reading copies of the tome that had been supplied by Griselda Marchbanks.

It was now time for bed and Harry asked, "Have you young ladies decided where you are going to sleep tonight?"

The question provoked an immediate huddle from the seven Potter witches, the outcome of this was a unilateral decision that they would spend every night in Harry's bed.

Our hero went to sleep that night with a smile on his face, he was thinking that it was a hard life but somebody had to do it and all in all he was very glad that it was him.

OoOoO

_**Preamble to the First of September** _

Harry and all of his Princesses had worked extremely hard right through the rest of the summer and very little had been allowed to intrude on their working regime. They had spent each night together and the majority of their waking hours were spent either training or studying; however none of them had forgotten that both Luna and Ginny would have to sit their OWLS as soon as they returned to school.

--

The Finch Fletchley family had been wiped out the day after the twins visit to Gringotts provoking an upsurge in determination within the group to learn everything necessary to overcome the evil. This resulted in all of them mastering Occlumency, Animagus transformation and they could all cast a corporeal Patronus, also, probably more importantly, they all had learned to fight as a cohesive unit.

--

As scheduled Dudley finished his year at school on the first of July and the same day departed from Heathrow to central South America, totally without incident. Harry later commented to Hermione that he hadn't realised that he had been subconsciously worrying about his cousin, even if it was only slightly and he had made absolutely no effort to see him.

--

Bill and Fleur had come to visit and Harry had taken Fleur aside and asked her to create what would be called the 'Prongs Foundation'. It was to supply free wolfsbane potion, through the Ministry, to any werewolf who wanted it, they could work out the details between themselves and he suggested that Remus help her set it up with the Ministry.

Fleur had thought that it was a wonderful idea and had given him a cuddle whilst kissing him on both cheeks, his princesses had not been best pleased until the half Vela had explained just why she had kissed him.

Obviously Remus had been delighted.

--

The Headmaster's portrait awoke on the fifth of July this was almost four weeks after his death and the wait had been quite stressful to everyone; however to everyone's delight the portrait was highly cognisant also he had given them better news than any of them had anticipated.

It turned out that both Voldemort's demise at Godric's Hollow in 1981 and that in Harry's first year whilst joined with Professor Quirrell; had cost the Dark Lord a soul fragment. As they already knew, Harry had destroyed the one in the diary in the Chamber of Secrets and the Headmaster had destroyed the one in Slytherin's ring, almost losing his right hand.

What they hadn't known was that this had left only two and one of those was in Voldemort's reincarnated evil avatar.

At Godric's Hollow in 1981 Voldemort had split off the seventh soul fragment as he attempted to kill baby Harry, this fragment was lost in the Abyss for all time, it was lost because the reflected Killing Curse had prevented him casting the required spell to anchor it to its previously prepared receptacle.

Fundamentally in Godric's Hollow on the night of Halloween in 1981 Tom Riddle had blown two chances of reincarnation.

Predictably, Horcrux creation was a complete anathema to the powers that governed the afterlife and whereas normally the giving of any information to the living would be frowned upon, in this instance it was encouraged. Consequently the Headmaster told them that the missing locket would be found buried under the sun-dial in the back garden of Grimmauld Place and they should dispose of it as soon as possible.

When Hermione asked how they were going to destroy the soul fragment, before the Headmaster could say anything; Harry, who had obviously given the matter a great deal of thought, told them that he was going to try to throw the locket through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. For a few moments the portrait was astounded and then the Headmaster started to chuckle and to laugh, he was soon joined by all of the others. This was such an obvious solution Dumbledore wondered why he hadn't thought of it himself.

Professor McGonagall told them that they now had an Order member who worked in the Department of Mysteries and she would ask for him to arrange a visit to the 'Veil of Shadows'.

Thirty-six hours later Professor McGonagall, seven young ladies and one unspeakable watched Harry throw Slytherin's locket through the Veil of Death; it was quite uneventful considering that at that moment Voldemort became mortal. The spells that linked the Dark Lord's final Soul fragment _(the one in his body)_ to the earth had collapsed; they had actually been linked to the Horcruxes and now there were none of those left on the mortal plane, there was no anchor.

Of course the next day a long debate ensued as to whether the Dark Lord would be aware of his mortality and the conclusion was that that he would not; _(the participants in the debate had included the Headmaster's portrait.)_ The other problem presented to Harry by the headmaster was that Voldemort had collected several artefacts which would make him practically immune to all but the most powerful magical attacks.

In the light of the latest information provided by the late headmaster Harry took Gryffindor's sword with him when he left the Headmistresses office; he would need to practice. The Light Side had magical artefacts as well.

--

The mortality situation provided a major boost to 'the Magnificent Seven plus One' _(this title had been a major contribution from Tonks for which she was severely tickled)_ and it helped to keep their spirits up during their hours of training.

--

Hestia Jones, who had been looking for a new job, provided the solution to another debate that had begun when the Doctors Granger decided that they were going to return to work as they had originally scheduled. Eventually, unbeknown to anyone other than Hermione, Harry had employed Hestia to look after the two doctors; this entailed her Portkeying them to and from their surgery morning and evening and acting as a receptionist/guard throughout the day. So, although several people were still nervous, their dental practice reopened as scheduled on the seventh of July.

It had taken Ginny this long to even partly forgive her mother, even so she never moved out into the mews with her and Ron.

--

In the words of the birthday girl, Ginny's sixteenth birthday was the best ever, really the best ever, really truly the best ever. Enough said.

--

Fleur and Bill married in southern France on the nineteenth of July, as is the way with such events the date had been known for months; however the location had only been revealed a fortnight prior to the event. As expected the wedding was beautiful and 'the Magnificent Seven plus One' attended what was a wonderful celebration, eventually Bill and Fleur departed on honeymoon, at eleven in the evening, destination unknown.

However the event resulted in a great deal of mystification for Lord Voldemort; he was relatively certain that there would be guards and wards surrounding the wedding, so he and all of the Death Eaters stayed well away. Instead at midnight he sent all of the Dementors, who had abandoned Azkaban to join him, to attack the venue … and somehow they had simply disappeared.

There was never any report that six of Potter's Princesses, eight Order members and eleven Aurors (a mixture of French and British) had contained the Dementors in a corral of Patroni whilst Harry with 'the Sword of Gryffindor' and Daphne with _'Myrkr-Kljufa,'_ annihilated them. Daphne and Harry had been practicing together with their swords since before Ginny's birthday and it had paid off … handsomely.

All those who knew were very happy, one of Voldemort's major terror weapons had been removed without causing the slightest detriment to the Light Side.

--

Tonks' mini-lecture to the Princesses, a week prior to Harry's birthday she considered to be one of the finest reiteration's she had ever managed. It went: "It is very easy for a young lady to move a physical relationship forward, but reversing it is extremely difficult.

"Hypothetically we will assume that if you snog Harry you will enjoy it." This sentence, as short as it was, produced varied retorts from the aforementioned young ladies, most of which questioned Tonks' sanity. In her own defence it must be added that Tonks agreed with the majority of those sentiments expressed by the Princesses.

"So if, as you are considering, you spend Harry's birthday snogging him senseless, what are you going to do, indeed how are you going to feel, the next day, August the first, when you are only allowed to kiss him twice, each time on the cheek?" At this point Tonks left.

Eventually sanity prevailed in the ensuing debate (for debate read argument) and no extra kisses were to be scheduled. However plans were afoot to ensure that a continuous display of naughty bits would be bouncing within his field of vision. When it was suggested that they might be taking sexual advantage of Harry, Hermione was told by all of the other Princesses that he didn't have to look if he didn't want to.

However he was a boy and he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday.

--

The first of August was a Friday and virtually the whole of the day the eight of them spent in Diagon Ally, more precisely Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Four of the eight had to sort out their finances due to the demise of their parents, albeit Harry's having been murdered some sixteen years previously.

With what Harry had received from Sirius he was wealthy, but from what he had been told by Remus today he would become rich, or in Tonks words 'stinking rich'.

Considering all the information available to him Harry knew that he already had more money than he would ever need but at the moment it looked like he was going to have seven wives and he had heard Mr Weasley telling Bill that wives ate money. He had given the matter quite a bit of thought and he had decided that the Goblins would have to sort out Daphne, Susan and Lavender's affairs first; next his accounts and vaults and when that was all done he would make sure that the Princesses had sufficient in each of their vaults. This final thought Harry had kept completely to himself.

Needless to say the Goblins had their own ideas about how they wanted to proceed and they wanted to deal with his finances first; but he was adamant, insisting that he would not be able to concentrate if he was worried about his recently bereaved friends.

Unusually when dealing with Gringotts goblins, Harry had won and the affairs of the three girls had been taken care of first; two of them could be described as being quite affluent and Lavender's situation could also be called comfortable.

Sorting out Harry's finances seemed to take forever; some of the numbers were so big that it was difficult for a few of the girls to even decide how to say them. Ginny was heard to mutter that she didn't know that there was that much money in existence and although they didn't admit it the same thought floated through several of the other girls minds.

And then they went to the vaults.

Harry hadn't visited his trust vault since his third year, this was when he had spent about a fortnight in Diagon Alley after inflating Aunt Marge Dursley and he had been spending money pretty freely during the last few weeks. He discovered that both the Blacks and the Potters had main family vaults as well as what the Goblins laughingly called petty-cash vaults and it was Daphne who remarked that she didn't think that there was anything very 'Petty' about a vault with over ten-million Galleons in it.

First they had gone to his trust vault, where, having been informed that there was over one and a quarter million Galleons there, he managed eventually to persuade the girls to take two-hundred and fifty Galleons each to pay for their school supplies. Ginny, of course, didn't mention to anyone that it was more than double what her mother used to spend when there were four of them at Hogwarts.

When they reached the second of the two vaults with over ten-million Galleons in it… (It was actually the Potter petty-cash vault and it contained about twelve million three-hundred thousand Galleons.)… The Goblin who was with them asked if Harry wanted them to start reinvesting some of this money? He received the very dry reply that boiled down to, 'he would wait until Voldemort was dead before even thinking about that'.

In a strange way the Black and the Potter main family vaults were very similar; the filing cabinets full of shares, deeds, bonds and such like looked the same, they both had several large chests full of extravagant jewellery, however the rest of both of the vaults, to Harry's eyes, appeared to be full of junk.

The junk comment was hardly out of his mouth before Hermione, Daphne and Padma started on him; regaling him with tales of the worth of antiques, both monetary and historical.

After about three minutes he managed to get the three to pause and quite seriously he asked, "Will it help us to kill Voldemort?"

The three sheepishly agreed that it would not, to which he replied that until the Dark Lord was dead as far as he was concerned it was junk and they would sort it out sometime after they had done for his snakiness. The trio awkwardly agreed.

Upon returning to the main banking hall, the magnificent seven plus one had the Goblin guide return them to one of the conference rooms, Harry wanted to do some more banking business and he knew that it would be somewhat controversial.

--

Dinner on that evening of August the first presented a conundrum to Remus, Tonks, the Headmistress and Luna who was once again at odds with Ron. They arrived in the dining room to find Harry in his usual chair at one end of the table but the magnificent seven were arrayed around the other end of the table, looking dour.

Luna wasn't slow and she took one of the seats next to Harry, (not even Luna was foolish enough to take the seat that was normally occupied by Hermione,) and whilst the other three were taking their seats she asked, conversationally, what the problem was. Four of the princesses started talking however they were immediately interrupted by Luna who asked them to wait for a minute because she wanted to know if Harry even knew what it was he had supposedly done.

The blond Ravenclaw rebuked him when he mumbled a reply so he explained vaguely about the money and then told them that he had put some in their vaults and now they weren't speaking to him.

So Tonks confirmed that they weren't speaking to him because he had given them some money from the petty cash vaults and then she laughingly asked how much did he have left in his petty cash vaults?

At this point Hermione managed to enter the conversation and told Tonks that he had given each of the princesses plus Luna and Tonks herself one million galleons. Obviously this kind of stopped the conversation for a few minutes.

A short while later Remus had reminded them that Tonks original question hadn't been answered; so Daphne clarified that he still had over five million Galleons in the Black petty cash vault and over ten million in the Potter equivalent. She didn't mention that there was also over one and a quarter million Galleons in his school vault, actually she couldn't understand the other girls' problem, but unity was good so she went along with them.

Tonks stood up and went and kissed Harry, when she had thanked him and sat back down she specifically asked the Princesses what the problem was to which Padma mumbled something like, 'he didn't have to buy them'.

The young Auror looked horrified and asked them if they had thought just how insulting that was to Harry, effectively they were telling him that they believed, that he thought, that they wouldn't be here with him unless he paid them.

At this point Luna leaned over to kiss Harry on the cheek and then she thanked him for the money; apparently although the Quibbler, as a business, was quite successful, her father wasn't very good with money and he kept spending it pursuing strange animals around the world. The seven Princesses had just finished relocating themselves at Harry's end of the table when dinner arrived; he had stopped Luna moving from her seat next to him

--

Several days later in the middle of one of their training session they were interrupted by the appearance of Daphne's many times Great Grandmother Brynhild, along with Odin 'the All Father,' 'Lord of the Æsir', who were the Gods of Asgard. Firstly Odin seemed to bless them all and then he imbued Daphne with Holy Power, he told her that in an emergency she could call on his power to help vanquish her enemies. Also he told her that all who chose to fight alongside her and her companions, would, if they were to be killed in battle, be invited to Valhalla to feast with all of the other fallen heroes.

Next it seemed to be Brynhild's turn, it appears that she is Odin's chief handmaiden and therefore the leader of the Valkyrie, the maidens who collect the souls of the fallen heroes from the battlefield and carry them to the banqueting hall in Valhalla. She waved her hand and Daphne was clad in armour and to say she looked good was the biggest understatement ever; Harry and Remus were totally stunned. The armour was totally form-fitting and appeared to be made from stainless steel and leather. Professor McGonagall, who was also with them that day told Daphne that she had to wear the armour to all of her training sessions, she added that all of the males would have to get used to seeing her dressed that way, it wouldn't do the Light Side any good if all of the males were comatosed because of her attire.

--

At dinner that evening Daphne was once again wearing regular clothes, however the subject of armour came up; there was little doubt that Daphne's armour was magical and to their knowledge there was none other like it in existence. After a long discussion between McGonagall, Flitwick, Tonks and Remus, he told them that the absolute best material for armour would be Basilisk hide, but it was virtually unobtainable and therefore almost priceless.

Quite blandly Harry had asked the assembly how would you skin a Basilisk?

If silence is golden, then the one that followed was a bit like the inside of one of Harry's petty cash vaults.

It turned out that Professor Flitwick knew of the existence a pair of relatively simple spells, these would remove the skin from either a dead Dragon or a Basilisk and form it into a suit of armour on the target. It would mean that 'the Magnificent Seven plus One' would all need to go down into the chamber of secrets, which they did a few days later, all twelve of them; the group included the two professors, Remus and Tonks.

After checking, the tiny Charms Professor had determined which parts of the hide would make the best armour and he told them that there was a foot-note that recommended that the target was only wearing their underwear whilst being fitted. When they eventually reached the dead Basilisk it was measured and found to be seventy eight feet long and Harry had killed it when he was only twelve years old; it would take a while for most of them to digest that piece of information.

All of the girls wanted Harry to cast the spells on them in their underwear but even after much pouting the girls spells were cast by the Headmistress and Professor Flitwick did Harry and Remus; there was sufficient hide for all four adults to be clothed as well. Brynhild had once again visited Daphne and told her that in battle her armour would be more effective than the Basilisk hide, ergo she hadn't needed any other armour. However Harry pointed out that she could wear Basilisk armour under her regular robes and be protected all of the time so because there was sufficient hide she had a set made.

Before leaving the Chamber of Secrets the four adults rendered the rest of the Basilisk into Potions ingredients, for safety these would be stored in the potions lab at the Order Headquarters in Grimmauld Place.

Harry had also given Ginny a cuddle along with a kiss on the cheek for being so brave and not complaining about visiting the Chamber of Secrets again, none of the others had complained about the young girl being given a treat.

--

The only other event to impinge on their training schedule was the annual pilgrimage to Diagon Alley.

The Headmistress had sat with them the evening before their trip and told them that Harry and Hermione would be Head Boy and Head Girl respectively; also Parvati would be the seventh year Gryffindor girls' prefect whilst Lavender would be a special security prefect. When Lavender had asked the Headmistress what her duties would be she was told that she should listen out for gossip and pass on anything that was interesting and relevant; Lavender said nothing but she did wonder if she might have this as a permanent job.

Ginny was appointed the Gryffindor sixth year girls prefect and she was reminded that she would be taking her OWLS immediately upon her return to school; to which she assured the Headmistress that both her and Luna had been extensively tutored throughout the summer. So the Headmistress then told them that Luna would be the sixth year Ravenclaw girls' prefect, this had cheered them all up but she was still undecided about Ron being a prefect because of his poor performance, however he would still be Quidditch captain.

She told the other three girls that they would each be the seventh year girls prefect for their respective houses; Padma for Ravenclaw, Susan for Hufflepuff and Daphne for Slytherin.

Finally when pressed she admitted that there would be five parties with dancing during the school year; one at each of the equinoxes; one at Halloween; one to celebrate the Winter Solstice at the end of the autumn term and the fifth celebrating Beltane on May the first. She went on to tell them that these were the traditional highlights of the wizarding year and she added with a smirk that the only wizard to ever send her a Valentine card, it was in her third year and he couldn't walk properly for four months, but she did eventually marry him.

What were possibility the best pieces of news she had kept until the end.

Kingsley Shacklebolt who had, amongst other things, been teaching the aurors potions was taking over the vacant Potions position and he would take over as head of Slytherin House.

Binns ghost had moved on and Dedalus Diggle had been persuaded to teach the History of Magic.

Tonks would teach Defence the Dark Arts with Remus acting as her teaching assistant, he would be teaching about dark creatures. Tonks would be the new Head of Gryffindor House.

At the same time she had given permission for those who knew to explain to those who didn't know about the common link between all of the new appointments, information that of course had to be kept very quiet.

--

The next morning Diagon Alley was its usual bustling self as the Magnificent Seven plus One, accompanied by Remus and Tonks made their way methodically through the shops picking up all of their school supplies for the coming year.

The only real discovery of note was made quite accidentally by Ginny in quality Quidditch Supplies.

She had been contemplating buying herself a new broom for Quidditch and she was checking that she had her vault key so that she could go to Gringotts to get the money. However when the store owner saw her golden coloured vault key he told her that she would be on his preferred customers list and she could just sign for anything she wanted; ten minutes later they left the broom shop, Ginny in possession of her new broom.

Subsequently it took a great deal of effort to keep Parvati and Lavender away from Glad-rags and the various Jewellers.

After visiting the ice cream parlour where they each consumed a large bowl of their favourite confection they returned to number twelve Grimmauld Place to continue their summer of studying and training.

OoOoO

**Authors Note:** I hope that this meets with your approval and I will try to be a little bit quicker with the next chapter. Also you can tell that it will not line up exactly with my story **'Clueless'** from which the whole thing was was spawned.

**Please Review. **


	10. Chapter 10 Luna

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him.

**Return of the Valkyrie.**

**Authors Note:** I must be doing better; this only took about a month for this chapter as opposed to over a year for the last chapter.

Anyway as I told my Yahoo group;I actually completed writing this chapter and started the next one before HPatDH was released; actually it doesn't pay much regard to HPatHBP either. It was with-held as a panacea against the angst I believed would be forthcoming in book seven. Relative to HP and the Half Blood Prince the angst wasn't so heavy.

This chapter marks a failure, or at least a radical departure from my initially targeted story 'Clueless'; available on a near you.

So I ask you to read it and I hope that you all enjoy it.

**Chapter 10 Luna.**

**Sibyll's Muse:** Although Professor Trelawney was probably the only person to realise it, she was not as disconnected from the real world as many people believed and she believed that Tom Riddle had not had as good a summer as he would have wished. (She, along with nearly everyone else, didn't realise that if he had killed all of the Muggleborn and half blood witches and wizards in the country, he still would not have had as good a summer as HE would have wished.) So being a good hearted soul, she was going to look into her crystal ball and give him a call, just to cheer him up a little…well maybe…

"Hi Tom!" she started breezily, "I've had quite a good summer how about you? I don't think that yours has been quite as successful as you would have wanted, has it? Oh well you probably won't be alive by next summer so I am sorry if this one has been too much of a disappointment to you."

The Dark Lord had awoken as soon as Trelawney had looked into her crystal ball thinking about him and he had heard the whole message, such as it was, but he hadn't quite been quick enough to answer her.

What on earth was that … it was the ravings of a demented halfwit that's what it was … nonsense from a delusional fool that's what it was, idiotic ravings.

Who was he trying to kid, she was right, at least the bit about his unsatisfactory summer.

He had lost three times as many Death Eaters as the people they had managed to kill and that included Muggles; on top of that the Dementors had disappeared.

The first was a fairly serious problem; however the latter occurrence had precipitated disastrous unforeseen repercussions.

Dark creatures which had previously been his allies didn't want to have anything to do with him; the Giants, the Vampires, Harpies, Banshees not even the Trolls, they all seemed to think that he was some kind of bad news.

How could he possibly be bad news?

He was going to unleash a reign of terror and beat the world into submission and then rule it with a fist of iron forever and that was definitely good news.

Well he thought so … and the rest didn't count.

He still had the werewolf Fenrir Greyback but he was even more insane than his Bella and all of the other werewolves had left him when the 'Prongs Foundation' had sponsored the Ministry giving out FREE wolfsbane potion to any werewolf who wanted it, what was the world coming to?

The young Malfoy had started hobbling around but he was becoming as crazy as his aunt Bella and he didn't have half of her ability, also his delusions of grandeur were becoming a tad annoying…still he would start giving young Draco some Crucio, that would cure him.

Snape was hobbling around as well although he spent most of his time in a wheelchair, at least Snape could brew potions from his wheelchair, the dick-less wonder needed some Crucio as well, what a cock-up that pair had made.

All in all it hadn't been too great a summer…what was he doing…she hadn't called him for weeks and then the bug eyed fool had woken him up at half past three in the morning and he was laying here, still awake at half past four, thinking about her demented waffle.

He was going to sleep or someone would suffer in the morning…

…someone was going to suffer…

…he took some dreamless sleep potion.

If she had known Sibyll would have been very proud of herself.

OoOoO

It was nearly seven O'clock on the morning of Saturday the thirtieth of August and in Harry Potter's bed bodies were beginning to stir.

"What time is it?" That was Padma, why couldn't she leave well enough alone.

"August." That was Susan, bless her, she wasn't very good in the early morning, but at least today she had managed to get the month right; it had taken over four weeks of trying.

"That wasn't very helpful." Parvati was extremely comfortable.

"Well look yourself then." Susan moaned, she wasn't really a morning person at all was she?

"It's not even seven, go back to sleep." That was Harry and all things considered it sounded like a really good idea.

"We can't, McGonagall might be coming at eight thirty and we need to exercise then have breakfast before she arrives."

"Why does Hermione have to remember totally evil things like that?" Daphne didn't particularly want to move either.

"She has saved my bacon too many times by remembering things like that and it's one of the many reasons I love her." Harry must be still half asleep; he didn't usually say things like that.

Hermione had a warm glow all over as she asked, "So who's going to move first?"

"I suggest Padma, she started all of this." The blond Hufflepuff was trying to get her own back, she had been very comfortable.

"All those in favour say aye." Padma's traitorous sibling proclaimed.

There were six 'ayes' and Padma complained, "But I didn't hear Ginny?"

"Don't expect anything from her yet, she's still out cold." Lavender had a smirk in her voice.

"Bounce your beautiful, brown, butt off the bed." Harry suggested.

"Alliteration this early in the morning, I'm very impressed." Padma sounded it too and she jumped up and started bouncing on the bed, chanting. "Harry likes my bum, Harry likes my bum, Harry likes my bum, Harry likes my bum, Harry likes my bum, Harry likes my … Ahhhh!" Lavender had tripped her and she giggled, "You're just jealous because Harry thinks I've got a beautiful bum." and climbed out of bed.

The others started dragging themselves out of bed with all of the enthusiasm people normally display when they think that they are getting up far too early in the morning.

Ginny still hadn't opened her eyes or said a word to anybody and appeared to be sleepwalking towards her room however she seemed to wake up when she walked into her bedroom door which was still closed.

At the moment the eight of them were without chaperones because reinstated Professor Lupin and new Professor Tonks had moved to Hogwarts to begin their teaching jobs. Also Hermione's parents had moved into a new house to the West of Sevenoaks, it was convenient for the M20 Motorway and Ashford; where their dental practice was. The Weasleys were still happily ensconced in the Mews.

--

The Dark Lord called his most faithful servant to him and said, "Bella at eleven thirty you will take six of the new Death Eaters with you, you will portkey to Diagon Ally, it will be very busy and you are to spread murder and mayhem for five minutes. Then you will return here and tell me of your success."

The female Lestrange was ecstatic and giggled insanely as she went to assemble her raiding party.

--

The Headmistress had told them that if she wasn't there by eight thirty five she wouldn't be coming, and it was just past that so the 'magnificent seven plus one' were discussing what they were going to do for the day.

To their surprise, Luna came in from the mews and she looked very upset.

Ginny was her best friend so she cuddled her and asked, "What on earth is the matter Lu?"

Luna answered Ginny's question with one of her own, "Have any of you seen Ron's Hogwarts letter this summer?"

There was general agreement around the room that no one had seen it; so Luna continued, "Well his mum has just found it and his marks were really bad so the Headmistress has decided to stop him being the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Also she expected him and Harry to help the new captain if they had time because apart from anything else it was their NEWT year and they would be busy studying.

"Then the letter told him that he was very nearly held back a year, however he would still be a prefect but that he had better pull his socks up with that, because for the last two years his performance as a prefect had been abysmal."

The blond went on, "We've just reached the stupidest part. Molly asked him, very quietly, if he had finished all of his homework and you know how he is, he started blustering and said that he hadn't and he didn't care about it or being a prefect, he would sooner be Quidditch captain than all of that other rubbish. He actually called school work 'rubbish'.

"Well of course this went down like one of Peeves balloons full of water, his mum just let him have it, both barrels and after about two minutes she sent me over here and I was to ask if you would look after me and tell you that none of us would see Ron before the Hogwarts Express on Monday.

"So if you don't mind, can I hang around with you lot for the rest of the weekend?"

The eight of them looked at each other and seemed somehow to come to an instant agreement so Ginny said, "Of course you can, we have just decided to go to Diagon Alley in a little while so you can come with us if you want to."

"We had better get on with it then," Luna said hurriedly, "because I think that Molly was going to call Professor McGonagall to find out exactly what Ronald has been up to at Hogwarts and his brother Bill to help sort his attitude out. So it might be best if we get out of the house before they get here, unless of course you want chaperones."

The group were already moving up the stairs before the last sentence was finished and Parvati called out, "Potter T-shirt's and Jeans under cloaks."

"We will be in public so don't forget your basilisk armour." Harry added.

Ten minutes later they had left a note of where they were going and they were all in a Northern Line tube train, heading south towards Charing Cross tube station.

--

Although it was still quite early in the day, Diagon Alley was chaotic, which upon reflection was to be expected, after all it was only two days before Hogwarts was due to restart.

The first thing they decided was that Luna had been unduly stressed earlier in the morning and she definitely needed something sweet to relieve the stress. So the nine of them made their way to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and just so she didn't feel lonely they sat with her and had their wicked way with some ice cream, quite a lot of ice cream actually.

It did not take them long, chatting over ice cream, to find out that Luna hadn't bought herself anything to wear to the five parties that were scheduled throughout the school year and it took the other seven girls even less time to decide that they all needed to go to Madame Malkin's and Glad-rags.

Foolishly Harry had asked why they had to go to both shops and he received the look from all of the girls except Luna, she appeared to think that it had been a perfectly reasonable question; however they still went to both shops.

Their shopping in Madam Malkin's was completed and Luna was paying for her things in Glad-Rags so Susan, Lavender, Parvati and Harry were discussing where they were going to go next. The other five came over and unilaterally declared that they all wanted to go too look for some more books.

Harry had every reason to believe that Daphne, Padma and Hermione in a bookshop together could take forever and now they had back-up, in the shape of Ginny and Luna, so he came to a quick decision, "We must all stick together and it is not fair that you lot drag us into a bookshop for the rest of the day, so you may have an hour from now." He said looking at his watch and he continued, "It is now ten twenty five, so at half eleven we are going to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes followed by going home. Agreed?"

The five reluctantly agreed and started a debate between themselves as to where they should go, it went on for a few minutes before Harry said quite loudly to Susan, "Well they have had the first five minutes and if they keep this up then will be able to go straight to the twins shop."

It was remarkable how quickly five girls could make their minds up when they were given the correct inducement; ergo three minutes later they were all in Flourish and Blott's looking at books. Towards the end of the prescribed hour they paid for their purchases and then Luna and the magnificent seven plus one departed the book shop and re-entered Diagon Alley to be greeted by seven pops.

The Death Eaters had arrived.

Showing the intelligence for which they were famed, all of the Dark Lord's servants were facing in the same direction, which, unluckily for them, happened to be towards the ice cream parlour and away from the book shop.

Bellatrix realised that there was a fault in her master plan; she had a problem and when she heard multiple shouts of _'Reducto,' _(the blasting hex) followed by all of her accomplices coming flying past her spraying blood from various missing appendages, she had an inkling of just what it was. She spun around quickly only to have her new silver left arm removed, three inches from her shoulder, by a tall blond girl with a glowing sword in her hand; she would not have been more impressed if she had known that the sword was called _'Myrkr-Kljufa.' _She quickly pointed her wand at the girl only to have it trimmed off neatly half an inch from her fingers by Harry Potter wielding another glowing sword.

The female Lestrange was most probably insane, however she was not totally stupid; she recognised a lost cause when she saw one so she immediately Portkeyed away.

Mad Eye along with two other Order members appeared from under invisibility cloaks and told the group to go home immediately, which they all believed to be quite a good idea, so with the aid of Harry and Hermione's Portkey rings they disappeared.

There was now a large clear area around the scene of the confrontation because the shoppers had moved away rapidly but they were reforming into a circle of interested spectators interspersed with several news reporters including 'Rita Skeeter'.

The three 'Order' members went around, and each quickly stunned the six seriously injured Death Eaters.

About three minutes later, a dozen Aurors Apparated in led by Auror Dawlish, who, as usual, looked to be in a bad mood as he brusquely asked, "What's going on here, then?"

By this time the Order members had lifted the left sleeves of the Death Eaters, revealing their dark marks and Mad Eye answered loudly, in his normal cheerful manner, "School kids doing your ruddy job for you. The busiest day of the year, why the hell weren't there Aurors on duty in the All…DON'T TOUCH THAT!" he suddenly bellowed at an Auror who was about to pick up the silver arm.

"What is it Mad Eye?" asked the rather shocked Auror.

"It's Bellatrix Lestrange's left arm. Voldemort must have given her that after her trip to the Creeveys earlier in the summer."

He turned back to Dawlish, "You should get somebody from the Department of Mysteries to collect it and you should get some medical people to come and look at this scum." He was pointing at the injured Death Eaters.

"What are you doing here anyway? You're usually glued to Scrimgeour's arse."

The encircling crowd had, as most such crowds do, all gradually crept closer and when they heard this, a lot of them started sniggering.

Dawlish wasn't having a good day, Master Aurors might retire, but they always carried the authority of their serving rank, so he had to answer, "The Minister thought that Harry Potter was here and we were sent to collect him; the Minister wants to talk to him." The despondent Auror replied.

"Typical. Not go and see what you can do to help, just go and hijack Potter to help shore up his over inflated ego." Moody wasn't being quiet and the crowd and the reporters were loving it. "He better get used to the idea that Potter doesn't trust him to do anything other than try to secure his own position, for that matter neither do I, you lot being here kind of proves that, doesn't it?

"Potter was here with a bunch of others, mainly orphans, as they came out of the bookshop the Death Eaters arrived so the kids blasted them. Right thing to do as well.

"One girl chopped off Lestrange's arm and when the bitch witch pointed her wand at the girl Potter chopped her wand in half, that's the other half over there." Moody pointed a few yards away and then continued. "Showing more sense than usual the psycho bitch portkeyed away; I don't suppose that Voldemort will be best pleased."

Two nondescript wizards had arrived from the Department of Mysteries and departed with Bellatrix's arm; they hadn't spoken to anyone and had simply shown Moody their identification cards.

Also a party of medical witches and wizards arrived and checked the six injured bodies; four were already dead and they didn't hold out much hope for the other two. Having been stunned three times each, hadn't done an awful lot to improve any of the Death Eaters chances of long term survival.

--

Quite predictably, Moody had been correct in his assessment of the Dark Lord's mood.

Voldemort was not best pleased when his Bella arrived back without the raiding party albeit minus her left arm; however it was only a mild precursor to the way he felt when he discovered that the magic in the cut from _'Myrkr-Kljufa,' _prevented him attaching a new arm for her.

And now he didn't know what to do. Bellatrix Lestrange, torturer, mass murderer and all round evil bitch of a witch, was sat on the floor, in the corner of his audience chamber, crying. Everyone else at the hideout was keeping out of the way; if they were sometimes frightened by Voldemort they were always terrified by Mrs Lestrange and they wisely left the Dark Lord to deal with her.

He didn't let it show but he did appreciate what was wrong with her; she had had her wand since her eleventh birthday and Potter had destroyed it, most upsetting.

He was a dark lord and he shouldn't have to deal with crying females; that was a 'do gooder' Hufflepuff's job, but none of his Death Eaters had been Hufflepuffs; he realised that he had had similar thoughts to this before.

What was the world coming to?

--

The returnees to Grimmauld Place from Diagon Alley were all sat on the floor in Harry's lounge cuddling.

"Do you think that we killed them?" Susan asked, with a hitch in her voice.

"They were all still alive when we left." Harry answered.

"That doesn't really answer the question though, does it?" Lavender didn't sound too happy either.

"What spells were they going to cast?" Padma enquired quietly.

"We won't ever really know, will we?" Ginny whimpered.

Harry knew that he had to put a stop these self recriminations immediately, "Lestrange was leading them, so the odds are that they would open up with two rounds of Avada Kedavra, so that would have most likely resulted in at least ten innocent deaths. The shoppers would have been in a blind panic so goodness only knows what would have happened after that; almost certainly more innocents would have died. These vermin signed up with Voldemort to inflict murder and mayhem on all and sundry in the name of a half blood lunatic's demented ambition.

"We all went to Diagon Alley today to have some ice cream and to do a bit of shopping; the Death Eaters weren't there for ice cream or to go shopping and if we ruined their alternative plans…great."

"It looks like it was six nil to the good guys." Daphne said, trying to sound a bit more up-beat.

"It's a pity that you didn't slice that evil cow down the middle instead of just cutting off her silver arm." Susan was one of many in the wizarding world who really did have several good reasons not to like Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Susan!" Hermione chastised mildly, but continued with a slight smirk, "That was just a teeny bit bloodthirsty don't you think? Although I must admit that I agree somewhat with the sentiment, and I know that most other people would as well, she really didn't make a very good first impression on very many people."

Hermione's somewhat dry comments eased a lot more of the tension and most of the girls giggled. She didn't know it but Harry had decided that she deserved a special reward later for her effort; he would have to get her alone before it was forgotten.

'_Myrkr-Kljufa'_ seems to have a mind of its own sometimes," Daphne said, "if it had been my choice it would have gone straight down her middle, but as I have told Harry before, quite often the sword decides what it wants to do and carries my hand along with it.

Harry's chance to reward his best friend had come almost immediately, because at this point Dobby came in and told them that it was time for lunch.

He held Hermione back whilst the others made their way down stairs; first he thanked her with helping to calm the other girls and then he kissed her gently on the lips.

The beautiful young girl was dumfounded, and quite frankly she didn't know what to do with herself; the kiss had been totally unforeseen, very welcome but also unexpected.

--

On top of everything else Voldemort suddenly had a thumping headache.

--

It took about three minutes for Harry to manoeuvre a dazed Hermione down the stairs to the kitchen where they were going to have lunch, and even when they arrived she was still not too steady on her feet.

Inevitably the others noticed that there was something wrong with Hermione, and Lavender opined, "You look like you have been snogged senseless, what's wrong?"

Hermione took two cucumber sandwiches and after swallowing her first bite said quietly, "Harry kissed me. It was very gentle and it was because I helped him keep you lot out of the funk you were rapidly driving yourselves into. It was over far too quickly but I do feel like I have been snogged senseless."

A 'Harrumph!' emanated from at least six of the young ladies at the table, and Daphne said, "Well I helped by bemoaning the fact that I hadn't chopped that Lestrange cow in half, so I should get one as well."

The others were obviously trying to think of an excuse for Harry to kiss them when once more Luna proved that her head was no longer completely with the fairies and helped him out by saying, "Well I think that you were all very brave, and you all kept me safe; so I think that you all deserve a kiss from Harry."

"I can see the wheels turning in his head." Padma giggled happily.

When he reached a decision it was obvious from his eyes and he said, "I agree with Luna that you were all very brave, and I also agree with Daphne that her comments helped ease the tension. So what I propose is that all of the Princesses are entitled to at least one kiss, that kiss can be claimed at any convenient time between now and when we return to school on Monday, and when I am in the shower is not a convenient time to claim a kiss. Also various others have earned one or more kisses for things they have done and I will endeavour to repay these kisses before Monday morning."

There were a lot of happy faces around the table as he continued, "What I do not know is what to do about Luna. She was there and she is the first reserve Princess; but she is Ron's girlfriend and I don't know if she would like me to kiss her?"

The dizzy blond Ravenclaw started bouncing on her seat and when she stopped she said, "I do believe that Ronald's mother asked that you provide me succour in his absence, and therefore I will claim my kiss as necessary succour due to Ronald's stupidity." Luna followed this by punching her right fist in the air and yelling something that sounded like 'YEE-HAA'!

Professor McGonagall and Mad Eye Moody had Apparated into the hall, they had heard Luna's exclamation and they entered the kitchen five seconds later where they were amazed at the sight of all nine students laughing their heads off. Barely two hours earlier they had almost been forced to kill half a dozen Death Eaters; the newly arrived pair had expected to find them all in the midst of a severe bout of depression.

The Professor said, "We expected to find all of you at least despondent because you had fatally injured six people, and that doesn't appear to be the case. Why?"

Wiping the tears from her eyes Hermione answered the Headmistress, "We were laughing because Luna said something terribly funny and it would take too long to explain."

Harry continued, "We had a discussion earlier in the holidays and we all but decided then, that Death Eaters do not qualify as humans, and putting down aggressive animals is an unpleasant task, but sometimes a necessity."

The youngest Weasley continued, "We found during our run in with them in the Department of Mysteries that stunning Death Eaters is not very efficient; they will just keep reviving each other; so if we have to put them down they are going to stay down for a while."

"Actually Minerva," Mad Eye said, "having three Order members stun each of them once, probably didn't do them much good; on top of all their other damage."

McGonagall looked pensive, "You mean that each of the six injured Death Eaters was stunned three times, after being severely injured?"

"Standard Auror practice since the first time around," Moody replied, "it was decided by the Wizengamot that Death Eaters relinquished a lot of human rights when they joined you know who."

The two visitors left a short time later, quite at ease with the mental state of the students.

As soon as the two visitors had left Luna claimed her kiss, she had assured him that she had checked thoroughly and there were no nargles about; after the kiss she remarked to the other girls that although it was very nice, that for her it hadn't been as good as one of Ron's.

--

In the middle of the afternoon Daphne walked into Harry's lounge grinning. She had been topless but she was replacing her T-shirt; the seven other girls looked at her and she said as her grin became a smirk, "I think that I've broken Harry!"

With a dangerous gleam in her eyes, Hermione asked, "What did you do to him?"

"Well in a way it was his own fault." The tall girl pouted, "He told us that we were not allowed to trap him in his shower, so I had just been to my room to take off my armour when I met him at the top of the stairs, I whipped off my T-shirt and claimed my kiss." The girls were staring at her in wonder and admiration as she concluded, "I left him sitting at the top of the stairs, and he appears to be a bit … bewildered."

Hermione went to check on her best friend, when she returned she was grinning as she said, "He'll recover…eventually."

Everybody giggled.

Unbeknown to Harry Potter, he was about to have the best thirty three hours of his life so far.

--

Voldemort's headache had suddenly become a migraine, and the foul tasting potion Snape was giving him was becoming less effective.

--

The first thing that seemed to disappear out of the window was the rule declaring that sexual advantage was not to taken of the wizard world's hero; this had been closely followed by his statement to the effect of the girls only being allowed one kiss each.

Lavender, Ginny and Susan had, subsequent to Daphne snogging Harry senseless, made a discovery, it didn't matter which girl took her top off in front of Harry he became catatonic. What none of the girls were the least bit surprised about was that he never, ever, not even once, complained about it.

Just after ten fifteen the twins decided to try an experiment of their own; they cornered Harry and both took off their tops at the same time.

--

Voldemort screamed, 'Potter!' and collapsed into unconsciousness. Two junior Death Eaters picked him up and dumped him on his bed.

--

The girls gently carried Harry up to his bed and took off all of his clothes, apart from his boxers and lay him in the middle of his bed. All seven girls went to their rooms to prepare themselves for the night, when the young ladies returned, they as usual, climbed into Harry's bed; however tonight things were slightly different, the only thing, each of them was wearing, was a 'G' string.

--

The conversation after breakfast on Sunday morning was unusual.

"So you like our boobs then?" Hermione asked with a smile.

"Mmmm."

"It's a bit disconcerting when you keep passing out though." Daphne pouted.

After a pause for thought he said, "Well I will have to keep practising, won't I?"

"You need to be able to look at them dispassionately." Parvati declared very proud of her use of a fifteen letter word.

"No Parv," Her sister said, "We want him to look at them with covetousness, which is exactly the opposite. But we also want him to remain conscious."

"On a purely personal note," Daphne said, "I don't mind if his covetousness extends to him playing with mine."

"And mine!" was echoed by the six other girls, so Harry's brain decided to go on vacation again.

--

Much to everybody's relief, (well probably only his and his seven girls) by eight thirty that evening Harry Potter otherwise known as 'the boy who lived' had cracked it, he could kiss any one of the girls when she was topless and not pass out. He still had a minor problem when the Patil twins decided to both kiss him at the same time whilst topless, the other girls declared that it was only a matter of practice; something both he and the twins were looking forward to getting a lot of.

The bushy haired bookworm managed to get herself universally reviled when she declared that they would all have to revert to normal clothing in bed that night; the least offensive thing she was called was a f&#$ng spoilsport. It did not placate anyone when she reminded them all of Tonks words of warning, they had been issued what seemed like a lifetime ago and she also reminded them that they all had to pack their trunks for school; however they did all comply.

--

Nobody living at number twelve Grimmauld Place had bothered to read the Sunday Prophet; they had all been too busy sexually harassing Harry, and strangely enough he had loved it.

Nobody living in the Dark Lord's hideout had dared to give him the Sunday paper; they were all very busy hiding from him and he still had a blinding headache also was lonely, because he didn't have anyone to curse.

Had they bothered to read it they would have found that the first six pages of the paper were mainly given over to photographs of dead Death Eaters, with close up pictures of their dark marks. In addition to these were photos of Bellatrix's severed arm and the front half of her destroyed wand.

The headline read: **POTTER SIX – DARK LORD NIL.**

The accompanying article, scattered in between the pictures decried the Death Eaters 'and all that they stand for'; however it never did say exactly what it was that they stood for.

The editorial wouldn't have pleased the Ministry (especially the Minister of Magic) either.

It heaped praise upon 'the boy who lived'; lauded the eight 'divinely beautiful' angles who had been with him, and informed everyone that five of the aforementioned angels were recent orphans of the current terrorist war. It also suggested that the other three of the girls had accompanied Harry Potter to the Ministry of Magic just over a year previously when he who must not be named was shown to be alive and a dozen Death Eaters had been captured. Also it enquired whether that had been the light side's last major success against he who must not be named; but it then unsubtly reminded everyone that two muggles and their muggle born student children had also done for ten Death Eaters earlier in the summer.

It continued by blasting the Ministry for being inactive; vociferously complaining that the Auror Department was seriously under funded and that it had been for years.

Then it proceeded to especially blast the Minister of Magic; pointing out that he had sent his own private goons Aurors, not to help with the situation in Diagon Alley, but to hijack Harry Potter in an attempt to bolster his over inflated ego. It continued by telling everyone that they had received a report from a very reliable source, close to 'the boy who lived', and it had informed them that Harry Potter did not trust the Ministry or the Minister, also the article made it clear that the paper could completely understand why.

The article in the Sunday Prophet was well put together and it had been written by Rita Skeeter; what she didn't tell anyone was that most of her information had been given to her by Mad Eye Moody. From her own trusted sources, (that is sources she actually trusted to be accurate) she was fairly certain that Moody was almost a friend of Potter, and she was fairly sure that, in a situation like this, the ageing Master Auror would not lie to her.

--

In Harry's bed that night everybody was cuddled very closely together, tomorrow they were all returning to Hogwarts and they were making the most of their last time together, probably until Christmas.

Lavender idly speculated on the likelihood of the anti boy alarms going off if the four girls carried 'the boy who lived' up the stairs.

However they went to sleep thinking about Daphne's snippet of self interest. What would they tell McGonagall if the alarms did go off? Because the Headmistress would never believe that they were simply carrying out a harmless experiment.

What none of them had even considered, was, what the Head students rooms would be like with both of the Head students being from the same house; and it was believed that Hogwarts herself actually liked Harry.

**Author's Note:** If you would like me to keep writing Happy Harry stories **PLEASE REVIEW**.


	11. Chapter 11 Brynhild

**Disclaimer: **J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing too bad will happen to him.

**Authors Note: **I must apologise for the long delay in producing this chapter; Chapter ten of this story was posted on the twenty third of July 2007; slightly less than a year ago. There are more notes at the end of the chapter.

**Return of the Valkyrie**

**Chapter 11 Brynhild**

**Sibyll's Muse:** This morning, much like every other morning when he was woken up at half past three, Voldemort had the rats, and it didn't help that he still had a headache from his connection to Potter, "You again!" the Dark Lord screamed.

Obviously his snakyness wasn't in a very good mood; she would have to be quick today. "Well Tom, I don't know where you have been but your lot did a really crappy job on Saturday," Sibyll chastised happily, "and someone has to point out the little foibles in your master plan. Did you read the Sunday Prophet? Six nil to the good guys … Yippee!"

His bug eyed nemesis had left as soon as she had finished speaking; however all was not lost because Draco had wandered, aimlessly, into his sight.

"_**Crucio" **_

It has been hinted at before; the fact that Wormtail is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and he wandered into the room to see what all of the noise was about at this time in the morning.

"_**Crucio" **_

At happy times like this he really wished that he could use two wands at the same time.

"Draco! Bring me a copy of the Sunday Prophet."

All of the Death Eaters had been franticly trying to keep Sunday's newspaper away from their master but now the ferret had a vision of his impending doom.

**-x-**

It was the morning of September the first and Harry reminded all of the girls to wear their body armour; however Daphne decided that she was going to wear her proper armour; under her robes of course.

Whilst they were all at breakfast Luna decided that she would accompany the magnificent seven plus one on the underground to central London; she liked the underground because it sometimes made her ears go pop.

When they came out at St Pancras station Luna decided to skip ahead as the others walked through the concourse to the adjoining Kings Cross station.

She very quickly came skipping back and told them that Scrimgeour's goons were watching the entrance to platform nine and three-quarter and the group quickly concluded that they were probably looking for Harry. Not wanting an argument or a fight with the aurors Harry changed into his kneazle Animagus form, leapt into Daphne's arms and happily snuggled into her chest.

_Voldemort's migraine suddenly returned. _

As the party approached the entrance to the magical platform, Dawlish, who always seemed to be in charge of the Ministers ambush aurors, asked the group of girls where Harry was. As the group disappeared onto the platform Hermione told him that Master Auror Moody would be along in a few minutes and he had better ask him that question; for some strange reason Dawlish didn't look too happy.

Of course Harry, much to his disappointment, had to revert to his human form as soon as they were all through the barrier, for security this had to be done in a quiet corner of the platform whilst he was surrounded by his girls. Because Daphne had cuddled him to her chest all of the other princesses decided to cuddle him to their chest's as well; nobody would be telling but this included the first reserve.

_This did wonders for Voldemort's migraine although it didn't really improve it. (Philosophical question; would an improved migraine be one which hurt more?) _

"_Death Eaters come to me; I am going to finish off Potter once and for all." _

_The minions all cheered and then waited to hear their master's brilliant plan. _

**-x-**

When three Order members arrived at Headquarters they were told by Molly Weasley that Luna, Harry and his seven girls had left a half an hour earlier; they had wanted to be in plenty of time to ensure that everything was in order. Which meant that Ron was going to be escorted to the station by four adult witches and wizards, which he thought was a bit over the top; also it was not too good for his image or ego; especially when some fifth and sixth year girls started pointing and sniggering at him. So by the time the carrot arrived at the Hogwarts Express, what with one thing and another, he was in a pretty foul mood.

Moody saw Scrimgeour's goons before they saw him and he asked them loudly what they were doing at the station; however he didn't wait for an answer and Ron with his escort went through to the platform.

**-x-**

Harry and the princesses wandered up and down the platform several times, they were chatting to parents reassuring them and their children; eventually they made their way into their section of the train.

It was not by accident that the Head Students compartment on the Hogwarts Express was approximately five times the size of all of the other compartments even so the prefects meeting was in turmoil. Everybody, apart from those actually involved in the action, had read the 'Sunday Prophet' and all of the others wanted to know who was involved and exactly what had happened.

Luna wasn't looking very happy and she was sitting as far away from Ron as was possible whilst remaining in the same compartment; Ginny had noticed this and she asked her friend, "What's the matter Lu?"

Without looking in Ron's direction she replied loudly enough for everyone to hear, "IT! Called school work stupid, and I don't think that I want to associate with people who think that school work is stupid. I don't really mind it when people call me Looney but I don't want them to think that I am daft."

"What on earth was that rubbish?" Ron had obviously reverted to not engaging his brain prior to opening his mouth.

Splat! Ron had been hit by a silent putrid purple spell from Luna; it turned him into a giant carrot coloured flobberworm, "If IT wants to act like IT has no brain then IT might as well be something that isn't really known to have one." The now smiling Ravenclaw said whilst practically everyone else started giggling.

Through her giggles Hermione said, "You can't leave him like that."

"Why?" was Luna's succinct reply, "He is supposed to be my boyfriend and because of his stupidity with his mother he hasn't been allowed to speak to me for three days, and then the first thing he said to me was rude."

It took over five minutes for any one of the over thirty students to come up with any kind of reasonable answer, eventually it was Harry who almost apologetically said, "The only reason I can think of is that he has to walk to the coaches when we get to Hogsmeade."

Most unusually, because it was without actually thinking it through completely, Hermione said, "Oh I'm sure the elves will move him to the school if he's like tha…What am I saying, he should be changed back."

Luna had her dreamy look on and everyone who knew her realised that Ron was in even more trouble than they had first thought, "Well I didn't bother to learn the counter charm and it's not a simple 'finite' it wouldn't be any use in a fight if it was. The spell was on an old piece of parchment tucked inside Moody's personal copy of, 'Fighting Dirty Fighters', it's meant to take people out of a fight and it seems to work."

"Can it be blocked?" Rogan Elfick the new fifth year Slytherin prefect asked; with what several people thought was unhealthy interest.

"I don't know." Luna replied dreamily and added, "Try," as she cast it at him; he became a silver, black and green banded flobberworm.

"Luna!" chastised Hermione severely.

"I didn't like the way he asked that question either." Daphne was supporting Luna.

"Neither did I," the Slytherin fifth year's girls' prefect said and continued, "His eldest brother was one of the Death Eaters you took out in Diagon Alley on Saturday."

"Apparently, when they're like that they can't understand what we are saying." Luna said as she picked up her copy of 'the Quibbler' and started reading it sideways; apparently they had all learned not to ask her, 'why sideways'.

Susan, Lavender and Parvati volunteered to do the first gossip prefect patrol whilst the others were telling the tale of their eventful Saturday, shopping in Diagon Alley

**-x-**

It was two hours later Hermione, Daphne and Padma were still huddled around one of the tables in the compartment trying to work out how to undo Luna's flobberworm spell; eventually they resorted to talking to Luna about it.

Hermione called her over and asked quietly, "Luna, what is the incantation for that spell?"

"Oh the incantation is easy," she whispered to them, "its _'Animus Commutatio'_ with a little poke and twist of your wand like this." She told and showed them at the same time and it's really easy to cast silently.

Looking puzzled Padma asked, "So why did they both become different coloured flobberworms?"

The three of them were holding their breath because Luna was looking like she did when she was talking about Crumple Horned Snorkacks, "Well, as well as the incantation and the wand twirly pokey thingy you have to think of what you want them to turn into and in the house we have a book called 'The Book of the Flobberworm' and I could remember both of those types. So that is what I was thinking of because I thought that the colours were pretty; and they would suit them."

"I've never heard of that book; who wrote it?" Padma asked; after all, amongst other things, she was quite keen on magical creatures.

"My daddy wrote it and he drew the pictures, it isn't a printed book." Luna answered brightly and she resumed reading her copy of 'the Quibbler'.

At this point the three girls decided that they would preserve their sanity and get help from Hagrid because, apart from anything else, they would need to know precisely what type of flobberworm each of the victims was before the charm could be reversed.

**-x-**

The rest of their journey was fairly uneventful; the lady with the trolley had been and gone; also nobody had for a second missed being visited by the ferret.

Unbeknownst to the Hogwarts Express passengers, Draco had spent a large part of the morning playing target with the Dark Lord; that is the Dark Lord was firing hexes and Draco was being the target; in line with Voldemort's master plan, the ferret was losing.

Due to the modification he had undergone Ron was unable to play chess, so Harry played exploding snap with Crookshanks; Harry told Hermione that her familiar was exceptionally good at the exploding part.

When the train was approaching Hogsmeade station all of them realised immediately that everything was not as it should be; there was no sign of Hagrid or the Thestral drawn carriages.

Luna had no armour so Harry put her in charge of the prefects and they were sent through the train to keep all of the students pacified and to make sure that they stayed on board the train.

Meanwhile the magnificent seven plus one changed into full battle gear; if there was going to be a fight, they were going to be as prepared for it as possible.

After they got off the train Harry told the driver to move it back at least a mile along the track; they would send up three sets of three red flares when they had sorted out whatsoever was wrong. If he didn't see the signal within half an hour he was to return to London post haste.

As the Express moved out of the station the party started walking slowly towards Hogsmeade; it did not take them very long to find what they were looking for.

**-x-**

Whenever they discussed the fight afterwards, they could never work out just how Voldemort and his Death Eaters had survived for so long. None of them had the least idea of how to fight a battle; it seemed that they could only handle people who were running away screaming; when they thought about it their escapade in the Ministry of Magic in their fifth year sort of proved the theory. Because they were fighting as they were withdrawing, they had posed all kings of problems for Voldemort's so called inner circle.

Daphne and Harry led his group in an offensive formation up the centre of the road to find twenty or so Death Eaters stood in a bunch in front of them; the two groups were about one hundred yards apart. The full effect of the magnificent seven plus one's actions over the summer had not been known, they obviously had had a serious impact on Death Eater numbers.

Harry's party rapidly closed the distance between the two groups; when they were about twenty five yards apart the Death Eaters launched a barrage of spells, mostly Avada Kedavra; all of them were reflected back into the Death Eaters. The reflected spells were accompanied by five reducto curses from the girls; most of Voldemort's minions were either dead or seriously disabled.

Ginny was one of the most accurate and quickest of the group at casting offensive spells and her job had been to watch their backs, she never had to fire a spell.

It took less than ten seconds to close the remaining distance between the two parties; and then the two magical swords went to work, properly.

Harry's final stroke removed Voldemort's head; Daphne's bisected what remained of him from neck to crutch.

Finally it was over.

Tom Riddle was really truly dead.

**-x-**

What none of the participants had noticed was that after the first eruption of noise from the initial exchange of spells; people had started drifting out of their houses to see what was happening. The first the participants knew about it was the huge cheer that went up when Voldemort fell in three pieces and the cheers just kept going on . . . and on . . . and a party began.

Hermione, Ginny and Harry fired the three salvos of three red flares, signalling for the train to return to Hogsmeade with the rest of the student population.

Helped by the confusion and the dark the magnificent seven plus one snuck away and quickly walked to the school taking care to avoid the teachers who were hurrying in the opposite direction, towards the village.

The victors went into the great hall and because they were the only ones there they all sat at the Gryffindor table; Harry called Dobby and asked him if he could bring them all something to eat and drink. Mainly it was the stress, but the encounter had taken a lot out of all of them; they didn't really realise it but what Dobby brought for them was mainly chocolate as in cake, ice cream, éclairs and things like that.

When they had all finished their quasi meal Harry called Dobby again and the happy little elf took all of the victorious party to the Head Students rooms. Dobby expanded one of the beds to the same size as Harry's bed at Grimmauld Place and then the happy elf called some of his friends and went to guard the door; Merlin help anyone who tried to force their way past their fanatical protector.

**-x-**

Meanwhile in Hogsmeade the situation was totally chaotic; the villagers all knew who their saviours had been but the Magnificent Seven Plus One had disappeared. A few minutes into the party the Order of the Phoenix members and the school staff had arrived at virtually the same time and a contingent of aurors had arrived a couple of minutes later followed by the Press.

Milling around and panicking seemed to be something everybody there was good at and into this turmoil piled all of the children from the Hogwarts Express, as was first stated . . . chaos. The train had returned to Hogsmeade as quickly as possible when the driver had seen the nine red flares and the students, especially the senior years, had wasted no time joining the rapidly expanding party.

An hour and a half later the situation still wasn't much better when Tonks and the Headmistress came upon Remus Lupin who was leaning against a wall in the shadows, grinning.

"What are you smiling at Remus? The kids have killed the dark tosspot and now they are missing, it isn't funny." Tonks was not very happy with him.

Remus' grin became a smirk and he said, "I bet you that the kids have all had something to eat and gone to bed; if they were here this lot would be fawning all over them and you know how they would all hate that, especially Harry. The rat bags will have crept away, snuck past the teachers and gone to the school, or Hermione and Harry will have used their portkeys and taken them all, back to Grimmauld Place."

Tonks smiled lecherously, "You know, that makes sense, not half bad for a man."

The Headmistress smiled severely at a situation that could quickly become very amorous and said, "So let us concentrate on getting the students up to the school."

**-x-**

It was four hours later and Minerva was still in a tizzy, it had taken another hour and a half to organise the students and move them up to the castle; first was the song from the hat which was joyful and long, she was sure that the hat was adlibbing. Then there was the sorting, which for some reason seemed to go on forever and a day, she had worried that the numbers would be down, but what Harry and his group had done over the summer had prevented that.

This year's feast was particularly sumptuous and the students consequently took what seemed like hours to work their way through it and then the start of term notices . . . she hadn't known where to start with the notices. So she gave out the standard notices which surprised no one in second year or above and then she told everyone that there would be an announcement regarding the earlier evening's events tomorrow, probably in the morning.

As soon as the children had gone to their House's Moody and Hagrid were sent to the Hospital wing to reconfigure the two transformed students; this proved to be quite simple after they had scoured the library for two hours to find the proper names for each of the flobberworms.

Thank goodness that establishing the location of the eight missing heroes had been relatively simple; the first house elf she had asked had happily told her that they were safely sleeping in the Head Students rooms and Dobby was guarding them.

What happened afterwards would most probably be ingrained in all of the staff's memories forever.

**-x-**

The staff had congregated where the entrance to the Head Students rooms should be, they had been joined by the four house ghosts; in front of them apart from Dobby, was a blank wall; when the wall had turned to stone he had sent his helpers away.

All of the teachers looked stunned and the Headmistress asked, "Dobby. What happened?"

"My friends and me was guarding the portrait when Hogwarts she tells me all to move forward, we dids when I turns around Mrs. Hogwarts has changed it and there is only this wall." Dobby didn't appear to be the least bit worried.

Deputy Headmaster Flitwick said, "Another fine mess you've got us into Harry." He had spent too much of his summer at number twelve watching old films with Dan Granger.

The Bloody Baron spoke, "There are at least one from each house in there which gives us all great honour, but are there any others who might help?"

Dobby went to the Ravenclaw Ghost and said, "Your Grey Ladyship there is another one of yours she is held with very much honour by the great Harry Potter sir, she is called Loony Lovelygood, she might be able to help you alls."

The Grey Lady disappeared through a wall and less than a minute later she appeared in the Ravenclaw common room; she went up to Luna who was talking to several girls and for the first time that anyone knew of, spoke, "I have it on very good authority that you are a very good friend of Harry Potter, would you come with me please and see if you might help us?"

Luna smiled and said, "Of course I will my Lady." The unlikely pair went out through the portrait hole.

All of the students in the common room were stunned, the Grey Lady had been in the castle for a thousand years and she had never been known to talk before. From now on Luna would be held in very high regard; not only for this but also because she was now linked incontrovertibly with 'Harry - I Kicked the Dark Lord's Butt – Potter'.

Her house ghost had explained a little of what was worrying them so when they reached the gaggle of teachers Luna went and sat on the floor in front of Dobby. She asked him to explain exactly what had happened; the elf explained very quietly what he had done starting from feeding the warriors in the Great Hall; wisely he didn't include expanding the bed.

Luna stood and faced the wall and said, "Hogwarts I know that you can hear me so are the heroes all right?"

". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."

"So they are all right but they appear to be restless?"

". . . . . . . . . ."

"You know that I am their friend, so will you allow me in to see if I can help them?"

". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."

"Of course, when I come out I will explain their condition to the staff."

A shimmering silver portal appeared in the wall in front of her and without hesitation, Luna stepped through it; the portal disappeared instantly.

**-x-**

Luna was stood in an enormous lounge study which was decorated in a style similar to Harry's lounge in number twelve with the addition of writing desks with chairs and bookcases. It looked comfortable and was very nice but the people she was looking for weren't here, so she went through the door in the middle of the far wall; now she was in a huge bedroom and her friends were all on an enormous bed.

The room had four doors along one side wall and five along the other, they appeared to have name plates on them so, for the moment, she ignored her friends and she went and read the nearest door plate, Potter's Princess - Harry's Pisces, so the room must belong to Parvati. Wondering if she was being a little rude she went in and had a look around; to the left there was a very nice bathroom and to the right was a walk in wardrobe with all of Parvati's clothes hung in it; straight ahead was the bedroom with a standard Hogwarts bed. It was all very nice and she had seen all that she needed to, so she went back out to the central bedroom; if they could just vanish the huge bed it might even satisfy the Headmistress.

Her friends were all very restless on the bed and when she thought about it, it was because they were still dressed in their armour; everyone knew that if you slept in your armour you attracted Gringles and they made you restless; she would have to wake them. Luna was a very bright and inventive girl so she quickly thought of various methods of rousing her friends, dismissing the bucket of ice water as being too juvenile she settled for a quick chorus of 'Old King Cole Was a Merry Old Soul!' As she was singing loudly she was wondering what it was that made Old King Cole so merry all of the time, if she could find out what it was she would have the house elves sprinkle some onto everybody's breakfast in the morning and then we could all be merry.

Luna was startled out of her reverie by Padma, who was shaking her as she shouted, "What on earth are you doing Luna?"

For a moment the young blond looked confused but then she said, "Oh hello everyone Hogwarts told me that although you were all asleep you were all restless so she let me look and when I did look I could see that it was because you were all sleeping with your armour on and everybody knows that sleeping in armour attracts Gringles and Gringles make you restless so you need to take your armour off and then you will be able to sleep properly with no clothes on besides which it's much more fun sleeping together with no clothes on." Somehow Luna had managed to say all eighty eight words of this in a sing song manner without rushing, pausing or taking a breath.

Harry said, "Thank you Luna, I was restless and my armour is irritating me, so who's for getting their armour off?"

"What have they done to the bedroom?" Hermione said as she sat up.

Luna sat on the bed as everyone else climbed off it to remove their armour and she started to tell them what had happened outside, "The Grey Lady came to get me and she told me that Hogwarts had told Dobby that you weren't sleeping properly. . ."

"Luna, the Grey Lady never speaks to anyone." Padma was looking half amazed and half sceptical.

Luna looked worried, "Well I don't know what we can do about that now because everyone in the common room heard her and I think that all of the teachers did as well; she is very proud of us all, especially you Padma." Now the elder twin was just looking amazed.

Every one was climbing back onto the bed with very little in the way of clothing on and Hermione said quietly, "You said that you spoke to Hogwarts as well?"

Luna smiled, "She is really proud of all of us as well and she really likes Harry; she has made these rooms for us…I mean you, so you will be more comfortable."

Daphne had caught on very quickly, "You know that you can join us if you want to, don't you Luna." They were all nodding their head's in agreement.

"I haven't done it yet but I think that I am going to finish with Ron because he is so self centred and if you will have me I would like to join with you." For her, Luna was being very serious.

Smiling Harry said, "Whenever you are ready we will be proud to have you Luna."

A very happy Luna left after telling them that all of the teachers were waiting for her outside the room.

"I like what Hogwarts has done to the room." Susan murmured as she was falling asleep.

There were mumbles of agreement as the others went back to sleep as well.

**-x-**

Luna saw what looked like a fairly normal Hogwarts door leading from the large lounge study back into the corridor; outside she found the teachers were still waiting and they were quite fractious.

Before anyone else could say anything the Grey Lady asked kindly, "How were they my child?"

"They were fidgeting when I arrived, but that was because they were trying to sleep in their armour and you probably know that sleeping in your armour tends to irritate."

"It's the Gringles you know, sleeping in armour attracts the Gringles and they irritate something cruel." The Grey Lady said smiling at Luna.

The young Ravenclaw turned to the staff, "You probably heard what I told the Grey Lady, they are all fine and Headmistress you will be pleased to know that Hogwarts has given them each a bedroom and bathroom."

Some time ago she had vaguely heard someone mention need to know information and she didn't think that the Headmistress needed to know that they were all sleeping in one bed; it would only worry her and she wasn't as young as she used to be. She was actually quite pleased that she had sorted out in her mind just what need to know information was; she would have to remember it in the future.

"I will walk with you to the common room." The Grey Lady said and she departed with Luna.

Filius looked at his watch, "Great Merlin, it will be breakfast in four hours; I think that we should all go to bed."

The Headmistress added, "Yes and I think that we should cancel classes for a couple of days." So the teachers departed to bed.

**-x-**

Seven forty five in the morning saw the first signs of life in the head students rooms; they all slowly climbed out of bed and went to look at what Hogwarts had done for them; all in all they were very pleased.

Parvati called out, "If we hurry we can get some breakfast."

"Do we have to?" Harry complained he had visions of what might happen at breakfast in the great hall and them all eating peacefully in their rooms.

Hermione was having none of it, "We are Head Boy and Girl so we should be at breakfast on the first morning; besides which we have to collect our timetables for our lessons."

Harry was obviously not very happy, "Well come on then, but if anyone annoys me or everyone starts getting on my nerves I will quit school and become a hermit."

If this had come from almost anyone else it would have been taken with a grain of salt, but this was Harry and they all knew that there was a lot of truth in what he had just said; he couldn't help it it was just how he was.

On the way down to the great hall they discussed where they were going to sit and they decided that it would always be wherever they could find eight seats together. When they reached the hall they found it to be quite full and the Slytherin table was the only one that had eight seats together, so they sat there.

The new Muggle Studies teacher was called Splogingsworth, he had been foisted on the school by the Ministry Department of Education and he was a really obnoxious pure blood idiot; he stood and said nastily, "You must all sit at your house tables."

Harry stood jerkily causing his chair to fall over and he said, "Dobby." When his small elf friend arrived he continued, "Please pack my things and take them home for me." Dobby was wide eyed but he nodded and, with a pop, disappeared; less than two seconds later Harry disappeared as well, silently.

Hermione stood slowly, she looked furious and she had tears streaming down her face, she looked at the Headmistress and said, "How many people did that imbecilic prat kill yesterday." The other girls realised what was about to happen so they all stood quickly and held on to the Head Girl; then the seven of them disappeared.

Luna had finished with Ron first thing that morning; now she stood she was also crying but the tears weren't for Ron; to every ones surprise she looked at the Headmistress and in a scathing voice said, "The moronic fool wasn't very clever was he?"

There was a loud crash and from a cloud of smoke stepped an old man with one eye and a tall beautiful woman, in a voice like a roll of thunder the old man said, "I am Odin 'the All Father,' the 'Lord of the Æsir', we are the Gods of Asgard and my companion is Brynhild my chief handmaiden, leader of the Valkyrie, they who carry the fallen heroes to the Halls of Valhalla to feast with the other fallen heroes.

"You Headmistress have made a grave mistake! You have allowed this buffoon into your school." Odin pointed his staff at the offensive professor and said, "Return to the Ministry from whence you came." The Muggle Studies Professor disappeared with a distorted crack.

Brynhild shuddered as she winced then said to the room, "That will have hurt, Odin is not happy." Then she turned to Luna and said kindly, "Come my child, we will take you to your companions." She held out her hand and when Luna took it the three of them disappeared with another, even louder, explosion and cloud of smoke.

Very dryly Remus said, "Did you ever get a feeling that someone might have said the wrong thing?"

**-x-**

Harry was steaming, he didn't know if what he had done was justified or if he had overreacted; it became moot thirty seconds later when a crying Hermione landed, with six other girls, and she threw herself into his arms; his world was right again.

The magnificent seven plus one had just moved into the Granger lounge when a bright light shone in the middle of the room and Luna appeared with Odin and Brynhild; Luna grabbed Ginny and held her tightly.

"Let us all sit and talk." Odin said calmly.

As they were scrabbling around trying to find places to sit Dobby arrived and told them, "If you alls comes to the dining room you can alls have some breakfast."

All Father or no All Father they were hungry and so they moved to the dining room where they found a magnificent breakfast awaiting them.

After they had all filled their plates and started eating Odin began, "By putting yourselves forward and killing the Dark Lord you have all raised yourselves above the level of ordinary people, this means that they will always tend to look at you with some kind of reverence. We know that none of you really like it but there is very little you can do about it; unless for the majority of the time you hide yourselves away. I believe that you have two islands so why don't we go and visit the goblins and make sure, and then we can go and look at them? Eventually you can all come and live in Asgard but you won't really be ready for that for well over a hundred years; so let us try to find somewhere nice and private for you all to live."

When they had all finished their breakfast's they moved out into the hall and Susan said, "We will have to change before going to the bank." Dobby had told them that the elves had moved all of their things from the school back to the house.

"I will take care of that and your education." The All Father said with a smirk; and they all disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.

When the smoke cleared the first thing they noticed was that they were stood in the middle of Diagon Alley; this was closely followed by the realisation of just what they were wearing; it was just as well that it was a fairly warm day.

All of the girls were wearing armour which was the same as that normally only worn by Brynhild and her great grand daughter; even Luna's assets that were normally marked as being under construction had gained at least two cup sizes; the girls all looked magnificent.

What Harry was wearing was similar to Odin; it was a brilliant white robe with ancient Norse runes embossed all over it. His hair had grown down to near his collar and he was carrying a staff with a huge glowing emerald set at the top; he looked both kindly and extremely dangerous.

Hermione made an apparent non sequitur, "Why do I seem to know everything?" This was followed by mumbled agreement from all of the others.

Odin said gently, "You do not know everything, even I do not have that distinction, however each of you now know far more than the combined knowledge of all of the teachers at Hogwarts; but it will take each of you some time to assimilate all of the new information you possess."

The bookworm pouted, "Will I still be able to Read?"

Brynhild smiled, "When you have established your new home we will move all of the books each of you own to the library wherever it is, we will also include a selection of books from the library at Asgard. Beside those for Hermione's problem we will also include copies of all of Merlin's diaries; it will be up to you to select what, if any, of this information should be released into the regular wizarding world."

The Alley was quite quiet but Padma said, "We are starting to attract attention."

It was an impressive party that started to make its way down the alley towards the bank, side by side in the front were Odin and Harry, and to the rear were Brynhild and Daphne, between the two pairs were the other seven girls in a mingling group. People were intrigued but it didn't look like the sort of group that would take kindly to being disturbed; of course that was until the Weasley twins spotted Daphne and then they realised just who most of the others were.

The terrible two bounded over and Harry thought that it was Fred who said, "Hi Harry I thought that you lot were supposed to be in school? Who's your mate?"

"Hi guys!" Harry said and then with a small smile he added, "May I introduce Odin the All Father, Lord of the Æsir." The twins had been around number twelve and seen Daphne in her armour, they had subsequently been told about Odin and the Valkyrie.

"The one famed for having a bit of a temper?" Harry was now certain that this was George.

"That has been suggested," Odin had an evil grin, "However I prefer to think it is more that I don't suffer fools gladly."

"We'll be leaving you in peace then." The twins said at the same time as they disappeared back into their shop.

When the magnificent seven now plus four reached Gringotts banking hall it appeared that notice of their probable destination had preceded them; besides Rita Skeeter and Bozo their least favourite cluster of aurors were there.

Dawlish made what was to prove to be a rather foolish opening mistake, "Potter, the Minister wants to see you so you're coming with us."

Rita knew who Odin was, so sensing impending doom she had started scribbling like mad.

Before anyone else could say anything Odin asked Harry, "Does this idiot work for the same moron who appointed that fool Splogingsworth to the school?"

"Yes I do believe that that would be the case." Harry replied politely.

Odin put out his hand and Scrimgeour, Splogingsworth and Umbridge appeared, "Do you know these people?"

Harry answered, "Fatty frump is called Umbridge she is another evil Ministry fool who was inflicted on us the year before last, Splogingsworth you have met already and the other bombastic ignoramus is the twerp we all have to suffer as Minister of Magic."

Rita was starting to have the time of her life.

The Minister made the second mistake, "Who is this fool. Aurors arrest all of them!"

No one from the Ministry could move except to talk, "For your information I am Odin the All Father, Lord of the Æsir and thanks to you I am not having a good day, we must decide what to do with you."

Three strikes and you're out, this time it was Umbridge, "This is the Minister of Magic and I am his Senior Undersecretary, Mr Splogingsworth will be returning to Hogwarts to keep an eye on undesirable elements there. Release us immediately or you will be sent to Azkaban, as it is you will incur a hefty fine."

It has been suggested earlier that Odin was not the worlds most even tempered individual and he had had enough; there was a loud ripping crack and a cloud of blue smoke; when the smoke cleared the banking hall was minus six aurors and three Ministry officials.

Brynhild coughed and said, "I wish that you would let up on the smoke it's starting to get on my chest; so anyway where did you send them all?"

"Rockall."

"Rockall?"

"It's a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, about two hundred and forty miles off the North West coast of Ireland, it isn'. . ."

"I know where Rockall is," Brynhild interrupted, "you sent 'Thor' there without his hammer and it took him over three months to get back."

Odin's temper seemed to have cooled and with an evil grin he said, "Well I sent all of their wands to the reception desk in the Ministry. Now we can talk to the goblins."

Rita Skeeter came forward and she evidently realised that it could be extremely bad for her health to annoy the All Father, she asked, "Miss Granger, Mr Potter do you think that I could have a photograph of you all?"

The pair looked at Odin, he gave a slight nod and said, "Miss Skeeter we will all be reading your article and the copyright of the photograph will remain with the Potter family, do not abuse it."

Rita hadn't been too pleased with this condition she accepted it however and then asked, "I know eight of you but I don't know you my Lady." She wasn't taking any chances.

"I am Brynhild, my Lord Odin's chief handmaiden and leader of the Valkyrie; I have decided that these eight are honorary Valkyrie and they are under my tutelage and protection."

Odin wanted more to be known so he added, "Something similar can be said of myself in respect of Lord Potter. Anyway enough of this frivolity, on with the photograph."

Eventually Bozo had them all lined up in a way that didn't annoy Odin too much and the Daily Prophet's dastardly duo left the bank.

Their time with the goblins was really quite short; the Black family did have an island, mundanely it was called Black Island and unsurprisingly it was in the Black Sea, Hermione assured them that it would be extremely bleak in the winter.

Harry suggested that they should still check it out sometime in the future and if there was nothing there they wanted he would sell it; the goblins made note of this.

Potters Paradise was a completely different kettle of fish; it was virtually due east of Singapore, roughly halfway between it and Indonesia. It was about twenty kilometres by ten, some fifty thousand acres and as nearly as nature does such things, it was rectangular. There was a lot of pasture and arable land; there were a couple of small mountains and a three square kilometre, fresh water, lake. As its name implied it appeared to be a tropical paradise and there was a very large house there; the details were in the Potter vault, ergo one of the goblins took them to the vaults.

Once there they collected everything they wanted from the vault; they also collected all the details of all of the other Potter properties as well as the portkeys to get them to the respective houses; there were four other major houses. Next they went to the Black vault and did the same thing again; this time there were only two houses besides the island for them to review later.

Now that they had everything they had originally come for they went back to twelve Grimmauld Place, it looked like they had enough to keep them occupied for quite a few hours.

Luckily they arrived home during the period Dobby considered to be within the acceptable time spread for lunch.

Whilst they were eating Odin told them that the group should be able to manage on their own from now on, so the pair of them would be going back to Asgard when they had eaten. Before the two immortals left they had told the group how to contact them in Asgard; also Odin took careful note of exactly where the location of the house on Potters Paradise was.

**-x-**

Luna and Ginny were given the details of Black Island to look over and Harry gave Hermione the Potter Island details because she knew him better than anyone else so she had more idea as to what he would want. The other girls shared out the other houses and Harry remained free to go around and look at anything interesting they found, Hermione reiterated that they should make careful note of any libraries in their allotted houses.

The girls were reading in Harry's lounge and he wandered off to find the house elves in the kitchen, he asked them if they could find the house on Potter Island. The pair looked unhappy and told him that they could not because they had never been there neither had any of the other elves they knew. Winky then told him that if they had been there once, they would be able to travel back and forth easily, even though it was nearly half way around the world; Harry took a portkey out of his pocket and the three of them disappeared.

Two minutes later Winky Popped back into the kitchen.

There was a family of eight free elves living in and looking after the house and island; the house was lovely but because locally it was after ten at night he couldn't see anything much of the island. He had also been informed that he owed the elves sixteen years of back wages and he promised the elves that he would bring the money, it was over sixteen and a half thousand Galleons, with him when he came again, probably the next day.

When he returned to number twelve he noticed that the house rule list had been modified so he smelt trouble, it arrived in Harry's Lounge disguised as Hermione, "Where were you?" She asked casually.

Gryffindors charge forward, "I took the elves to Potters Paradise so they knew how to get there and I was diverted."

Winky had already told the girls where he had gone so it was just as well that he had been totally honest with her, "How do you mean, you were diverted?"

"Well there is a family of eight elves living there," Hermione was starting to steam, "and they told me that I owed them sixteen years back pay, so I told them that I would try to bring seventeen thousand Galleons to them tomorrow." The steam had gone away and she now had a big smile.

She was bouncing up and down, "Why can't we go there now?"

"Because the time difference is seven hours, which would make it after eleven at night and the elves are most likely wanting to go too bed." It sounded fairly reasonable to him.

The girls all looked disappointed, but it must have sounded reasonable to them as well because Daphne asked, "What was the house like?"

He gave Hermione a cheeky smile and said, "It's a bit bigger than this one."

None of the other girls understood why Hermione, who suddenly had a huge smile, had just leapt on him and started tickling him; they didn't particularly care either they just joined in.

**The END . . . possibly.**

**Author's Notes; **

This chapter is as close as I could get to my one shot 'Clueless,' which it barely resembles although the main ideas are still there, never the less I hope that you agree that it was a good target.

I have realised what some of the major causes of my writers block are. I do not like writing big battle scenes and I simply keep putting them off; so I have decided that I will always write much smaller confrontations. Also in common situations I tend to get tied down trying to think up something original to say, so unless it is either relevant to the story or entertaining, I will tend to skirt around them.

There are several open ends left for your consideration, if there is sufficient interest there is obviously scope for several short stories.

I thank all of you who have read and reviewed this tale.

**Please Review**


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